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PRIMARY HISTORY 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES 




PRIMARY HISTORY 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES 


THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY 
FOR YOUNG FOLKS 


BY 

CHARLES MORRIS 

\\ 

AUTHOR OF “HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,’ 
“HISTORICAL TALES,” ETC. 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPP1NCOTT COMPANY 





.Kls% 

- 


Copyright, 1899 , 1907 , 1912 , 1913 , 1916 , 1917 , 1919 . 1921 , 
bt J. B. Lippincott Company 
Copyright 1923 
by J. B. Lippincott Company. 





0C1 2^ 1923 


ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, TJ. S. A 







©C1A759569 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction. 7 

Christopher Columbus. 9 

The Voyage and Discovery.17 

John and Sebastian Cabot.25 

De Leon and De Soto.29 

The French and the English . . .. 33 

Captain John Smith . . ..38 

Captain Smith’s Later Life.43 

The Growth of Virginia. 48 

Captain Henry Hudson.. ..51 

The Colony of New York. 56 

Captain Miles Standish. 60 

Miles Standish and the Indians. 65 

Roger Williams. 70 

King Philip.76 

The Regicides and the Charter. 80 

Lord Baltimore. 86 

William Penn.90 

William Penn and his Province.93 

James Oglethorpe.97 


5 























CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The Indians of the North.101 

The Indians of the South and West.107 

Life in New England.110 

Life in the Middle and Southern Colonies.116 

Young Benjamin Franklin.121 

Franklin in Philadelphia.126 

Young George Washington .131 

Washington in War.136 

King George and the Colonies.143 

The Dawn of Liberty.. . 150 

Washington in the Revolution.157 

Betsy Ross and the Flag.165 

Daniel Boone.170 

George Rogers Clark.176 

Jefferson and Hamilton.'.183 

Harrison and Tecumseh.189 

Andrew Jackson.194 

Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.200 

Life in the West. 204 

The Land of Gold.206 

Doctor Whitman’s Ride.210 

Abraham Lincoln.215 

Lincoln in Later Life.220 

The Great Civil War. 224 

Years of Disaster.229 

Years of Celebration.233 

Stages of Progress.236 

The War with Spain .238 

Theodore Roosevelt’s Career.243 

The World War.252 
































INTRODUCTION. 


Ws feel sure that all the boys and girls who read this 
little book will be glad to be told about the land they 
live in, the great country which is known as the United 
States. They will find it pleasant to read how, many 
years ago, this land was first seen by bold sailors who 
came across the broad Atlantic Ocean. And they will 
wish to learn how white men began to live here, and what 
they said and did, and how, step by step, they built up this 
great and mighty nation. 

All of you should be glad to learn what kind of people 
were found in this country, how they spent their time, and 
what became of them. And you should seek to know 
what the white men did: how they cut down the great 
trees, and built for themselves homes, and sent ships 
abroad, and in time had large cities, and broad farms, and 
all that makes a people great. You cannot help loving your 
country better when you have read the story of its wonder¬ 
ful growth. 

It is a long story you will need to learn, one in which 
many great and wise men took part, in which there were 
many years of war and more years of peace, and in which 

the country grew rich, and more and more people came to 

7 


INTRODUCTION 


it, and in time it grew into the broad and grand nation 
which spreads around us to-day. By history, you should 
know, is meant the acts of men, and in this book you will 
read of the lives and doings of our best and greatest men, 
of how they thought, and worked, and acted, for our good, 
and how this mighty nation grew up out of their deeds 
and those of the people who followed them in war and in 
peace. 

And now we must start into the story we have set out 
to tell: how this great land was once covered with forests 
in which red men hunted wild animals and lived in a very 
simple way, and how it was found by white men, who 
came here to live, and all else that took place down to our 
own days. First, we have to tell the wonderful story of 
Columbus, the great sailor who was the first to cross the 
ocean to this new land. 


PRIMARY HISTORY 

OF 

THE UNITED STATES. 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 


The Man and Boy.—Many, many years ago, on a sunny 
autumn day, a man and a boy 
walked along a dusty road in 
the south of Spain, as you may 
have often seen people walk 
on our own roads. The man 
was tall and strong, but he 
looked as if he had come far 
and was tired. The boy, dusty 
and hungry, held fast to his 
father’s hand as he walked 
along by his side. This was 
very long ago, more than four 
hundred years in the past, and 
millions on millions of men and 
boys of whom we have never 
heard have died since then. But the story of that day 
will not soon be forgotten, for it is told in a hundred books 



COLUMBUS AND SON ON THE WAY 
TO LA RABIDA. 














CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


of history. The poor boy seemed worn out with his walk, 
and he looked up in the man’s face, and said,— 

“ Have we much farther to go ? I am very hungry.” 

“ My poor son,” said the man, in kindly tones, “ I am 
sure you must be tired as well as hungry. But here is a 
house of holy monks, where you can rest and eat. You 
know they always give bread to the hungry.” 

The Convent.—The man pointed to a large, low build¬ 
ing on the road-side not far away. It was what is known 
as a convent; that is, a home for religious men who do 
not wish to live in the active world. This old building still 
stands where they saw it that far-off day, and a model of 
it was shown at the World’s Fair at Chicago (she-kaw'go) 
in 1893, where it was seen by many thousands of our 
people. 



Bread and Water.—Very soon the two stood in front 
of the convent, and the man rapped on the door. It was 
opened by the-old porter, or door-keeper. 

“ My son is very hungry,” said the man. “ I beg you to 
give him a piece of bread and a cup of water.” 

He did not ask for bread for himself, though he must 

10 





















CHRISTOPHER COLUMRUS 


have been hungry too. The kind old porter soon brought 
some bread and water, and the boy began to eat, while the 
father stood looking on. 

Juan Perez, the Prior. —While they stood there, the 
prior * of the convent came up and looked at the man. 
He saw that his dress was poor, but that his face was 
good and noble. The prior, whose name was Juan Perez 
(hoo-an' pa'reth), was a man who had read much, and 
was not one of those who judge men by their clothes. 
He began to talk with the stranger, and was so pleased 
with what he said that he asked him to come into the 
convent for a longer talk. 

The Talk in the Convent.— It was a great talk that took 
place that day in the old convent. It was one of the greatest 
that ever took place, for it led to wonderful things. If it 
had not been for that talk Spain would not have sent ships 
to America, and France or England might have taken her 
place in the New World. Thus you may see that the 
history of the world was changed by that talk. 

The Stranger’s Story.— The stranger told the prior who 
he was and where he was going. We do not know just 
what words he used, so we must give his story in our own 
words, for it is one that every boy and girl should know. 
This, then, is what the traveller told the prior as they 
talked in the convent parlor, and the boy sat on a stool 
by his father’s side and rested his head on his knee. 


* Prior: The man who has charge of a convent of monks. 

11 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


A Sailor’s Life.—He was a sailor, he said, and his name 
was Christopher Columbus (kris'to-fur co-lum'bus). He 
was born in the city of Genoa (jen'o-ah), in Italy, and 
had gone to sea when he was fourteen years old. He had 
made many voyages, some of them to very distant lands. 
He had also taken part in fights at sea, for in those days 
there were many pirates, or sea-robbers, and the poor 
sailors had often to fight for their lives. In one of these 
fights his ship was set on fire, six miles from shore, and he 
had to swim ashore on a piece of a broken mast or oar. 

What Columbus Learned.—Columbus was not like the 
most of sailors, who know only how to work on a ship,— 
to pull ropes, and set sails, and do such labor. He had 
been fond of books all his life. He had to learn Latin, for 
many of the best books at that time were printed in Latin. 
He studied all he could about geography (je-og'rah-fe), and 
knew how to draw maps and charts. For many years 
these helped him to live, for he made maps which he sold 
to sea-captains who were going to sail far away. 

The Trade with Asia.—At that time the people of 
Europe (yu'rope) knew very little about the great conti¬ 
nent* (con'ti-nent) of Asia (a'shi-a), though they got from 
it silks, and spices, and other rich goods. These were 
brought many miles over the land on the backs of camels, 
and were then put on ships and taken farther west. 


* Continent: a great tract of land containing many countries and 
nearly or quite surrounded by oceans and seas. 

12 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 



COLUMBUS. 


How to Reach Asia.—Columbus told the prior that 
what he wanted to do was to find some way to get to Asia 
in ships. If that could be done, the 
spices and silks could be sold at 
lower prices, for it would then cost 
far less to carry them. But the great 
continent of Africa (af're-kah) stood 
in the way, and no ship had ever yet 
sailed around it. 

Sailors’ Fancies.—Sailors were 
afraid to sail far out into the Atlantic 
Ocean (at-lan'tic o'shun). They 
called it the “ Sea of Darkness,” and said that it was full of 
great monsters, and was so hot in one place that the waters 
boiled. They believed that the earth was flat, and that if a 
ship sailed too far it would come to the world’s end and 
fall over its edge. And they had other notions about it 
that men would laugh at to-day. 

The Round World.—Most men who lived then believed 
these things; but there were some who did not, and Co¬ 
lumbus was one of them. He did not think that the earth 
was flat, but was sure it was round like a ball. He told 
the good prior that if a ship should sail on and on it would 
in time go round the world and come back to the place 
it started from, just as a fly will walk round an apple 
or an orange. He said there was no need to try to sail 
round Africa, to get to Asia. The best way, he thought, 

was to sail straight out into the ocean. He was sure 

13 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


that if a ship sailed to the west it would come in time to 
the shores of Asia. 

Seeking a Patron.—He went on to say that he had 
tried for years to get some one to help him in this plan, 
for he had not money enough to do it himself. He first 
asked the rulers of Genoa, the city in which he was born; 
but they told him he was a fool to want to try such a 
thing. Then he went to Portugal (port'yu-gal), whpse 
ships had long been trying to sail round Africa. But King 
John of Portugal sought to cheat him. He sent out a ship 
in secret, but the captain was scared by a storm and came 
back. This made Columbus very angry, and he left Portu¬ 
gal for Spain. King John was very sorry afterwards that 
he had not helped Columbus in his plans. 

Columbus in Spain.—When Columbus got to Spain, he 
found its king and queen at war with the Moors, a people 
who had once held nearly the whole of that country. For 
seven long years he tried to get their aid, until people grew 
tired of seeing him about, and made fun of him or called 
him crazy. These men asked him how people could live 
on the other side of the world, with their feet up and their 
heads down. This seemed like nonsense to many men 
who were thought very learned and wise. 

The Start for France.—At last Columbus left the court 
of Spain, and set out for France to see if he could get 
help from the king of that country. He went on foot, 
for he was too poor to ride, and he took with him his 

son. It was in this way he came to the convent of La 

14 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


Rabida (lah rab'e-dah) and told the prior the story of his 
life. 

The Prior and the Queen.—It was a good thing for 
Columbus that he stopped at the way-side convent to beg 
bread for his boy. The prior became his friend,—and a 
good friend he was, for he knew Isabella, the queen of 
Spain, and wrote a letter to her asking her to help Colum¬ 
bus in his plans. The queen sent for the prior, and had a 
talk with him. He told her that she would be wise to give 
Columbus ships and men. It would not cost her much 
money, and if he found new lands beyond the sea it would 
be a great thing for Spain. So the queen told him to send 
Columbus back. 

A Second Start for Prance.—Columbus was not willing 
to work without pay. The war with the Moors was over, 
and the king and queen had time to hear his plans, but he 
asked so much for himself, if he should find land beyond 
the sea, that they would not agree to give him what he 
wanted. In the end, he left them again, and set out once 
more for France. 

Columbus is Called Back.—Columbus now had a mule 
to ride and a suit of good clothes to wear. The queen 
had given him these. He kept on until he got into a 
mountain-pass, where he saw a man riding after him in 
haste. When this man came up, he said he had been sent 
by the queen. She wanted Columbus to come back, and 
sent word that she would give him the ships and men he 
needed, and help him in his plans. He was very glad to 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


hear this, and went back to the queen, who now said he 
could have all he had asked for. 

The Vessels.—The queen gave Columbus three small 
vessels, only one of which had a deck. The others were 
not much more than open boats. They lay at the little 
port of Palos, near the convent where Columbus and his 
son had stopped for bread. They could not have cost 
much, and the queen did not pay all the money for them, 
for two rich men of Palos who were to go with Columbus 
paid part of it. 

Getting the Crews.—After he got the ships he tried to 
get men, and found this nearly as hard. The sailors of 
Palos were afraid to sail into the unknown sea, which they 
were sure was full of dreadful things. He might never 
have got them if the king had not given him the power to 
take what men he needed. So the poor, scared sailors 
had to go whether they wanted to or not. That was the 
way things were done in those days. 

You must now tell in your own words some of the things you have 
read. Tell— 

1. Where Columbus was born. 

2. Why he stopped at the convent. 

3. Why men wanted to get to Asia. 

4. What fancies they had about the ocean. 

5 . The story of what Columbus did in Spain. 

6. How he got ships and men. 


16 


THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 

THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 

Good-by to Spain and Friends.— It was on the 3d of 
August of the year 1492 that Columbus set sail on the 
greatest sea-voyage that 
had ever been made. 

For nearly twenty years 
of his life he had sought 
for aid. At last, with 
his three small ships 
and one hundred and 
twenty men, he was on 
the great, wide ocean. 

All the men had bid¬ 
den good-by to their 
friends, and most of 
them, no doubt, thought 
they would never see 
their native land again. 

Columbus, also, bade 
good-by to his friend Juan Perez, the prior, and to his son, 
whom he left at the convent in the care of the good prior. 

In the Open Sea.— The ships sailed south to the 

Canary Islands, which lay off the coast of Africa. When 

they left these islands they turned to the west, and were 

soon in seas where no vessel had ever been before. It 

was a sad day for the poor sailors. Many of them shed 

tears as they lost sight of land. All of them were full of 

17 



THE SHIPS OF COLUMBUS. 


2 











THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


tear. They were going into the “ Sea of Darkness,” and 
looked with scared eyes for some of the dreadful things of 
which they had been told. 

What the Men Feared.— They thought they would 
soon be in black fogs, or frozen seas, or places where the 
water was hot enough to boil. Some thought that great 
monsters would lift their scaly heads from the deep sea 
and crush the ships in their jaws or carry off men from 
the decks. Or they might glide down a hill of water up 
which no ship could climb again. They might even reach 
the edge of the earth, and fall no one knew where. 

Causes for Fear.— But on and on they went, day after 
day, and none of these things were seen. All they saw 
were water, clouds, and sky, such as they had long known 
at home. There were only two things to give them real 
trouble. One of these was the wind, which blew steadily 
to the west. If it kept like this, how could they ever come 
back against it? The other was the compass,* that needle 
which at home always pointed to the north, so that sailors 
could tell from it in which direction they were going. It 
now pointed a little to one side of the north, and they 
feared they were going to lose the sailor’s best friend. At 
one place they came into great tracts of sea-weed, which 
they were afraid might stop the vessels in their course. 

* Compass : A needle made into a magnet. The magnet is a piece 
of iron which, for some reason, always points north and south when 
free to move. By its aid sailors can always tell where the north, 
south, east, and west lie. 


18 




THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


The Loss of Hope.— Columbus had no easy time with 
the sailors. He did not let them know how far they had 
gone, and did his best to keep up their hopes. But as day 
after day went by and nothing but sky and water were to 
be seen, nearly all on board lost hope. Some of the men 
formed a plot to get rid of Columbus and sail back. They 
could throw him into the sea, they said, and no one at 
home would know, for they would say that he had fallen 
into the water and been drowned. 

Signs of Land.—It was lucky for Columbus that some¬ 
thing soon after brought back hope to the men and kept 
them from doing this base deed. They began to see things 
that made them think they must be near land. One thing 
they saw was a branch of a tree with fresh red berries on 
it. Then a stick was picked up from the water which had 
on it marks cut by men. The next thing they saw was * 
some sea-weed with live crabs in it, and birds came flying 
about the ship which they knew had come from the land. 
They were sure now that they must be near some shore. 

Land at Last.—When night came no one felt like sleep¬ 
ing. About ten o’clock at night Columbus saw a light, 
which moved as if it were carried in a man’s hand. Every 
one on the ships now looked eagerly ahead. 

About two o’clock in the morning there came from one 
of the ships the glad cry of “ Land!” A sailor had seen 
land in the clear light of the moon. When day dawned 
they saw that this was no false cloud, such as they had 

taken for land before. Before them lay a low, green shore, 

19 


THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


on which they saw men, Avho looked with fear and wonder 
at the ships. It was Friday, the 12th of October, 1492. 

The Landing’.—Cries of joy came from the men. 
Everybody got ready to set foot on that strange shore. 
Columbus, in a rich dress and holding in his hand the 
great banner of Spain, stepped into a boat and was rowed 
ashore. We may be sure it was a glad moment for him 



THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS. 


when he put his foot on that land he had so long looked 
for. He kneeled and kissed the ground, while the men 
who had lately wanted to throw him into the sea fell at 
his feet with tears in their eyes and begged for pardon. 

When he rose, Columbus planted the banner in the 
ground and claimed the land for Spain, saying that it be¬ 
longed to the king and queen of the country from which 

20 








































































THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


he had come. It was a small island, one of those we now 
call the Bahamas (bah-hah'mahs). He named it San Sal¬ 
vador (sal'vah-dore). 

The People.—The people were not like any that Colum¬ 
bus had ever seen in all his voyages. None of them wore 
clothes, and they were of a red or copper color, with 
straight black hair and gentle faces. They had never seen 
white men before, and looked at the Spaniards (span'yards) 
with wonder. The ships seemed to them to be great birds 
with white wings, and they thought the white men had 
come from heaven. They had some ornaments of gold, and 
were asked by signs where gold was to be found. When 
they knew what was wanted they pointed to the south. 

Cuba and Hispaniola.—The Spaniards soon got on their 
ships again and sailed away to the south. Island after 
island was passed, all warm as summer and beautiful with 
green trees and bright flowers. At length an island was 
reached so large that Columbus thought it part of the 
mainland. It was the one we call Cuba. They went on 
till they came to another large island, which Columbus 
called Hispaniola (his-pan-ee-o'lah), or Little Spain. Here 
one of his vessels ran on shore and was broken up by the 
waves. He built a fort out of the wood from this ship and 
left some of his men there. With the other vessels he set 
sail back to Spain. He wanted to let the world know of 
the great discovery* he had made. 


* Discovery: The finding of something not known before. 

21 



THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


What Columbus Thought. —You have been told that 
Columbus set out to reach Asia across the seas, and he 
thought it was Asia he had found. He was sure it must be 
part of the country named India (in'de-ah), so he called 
the red men Indians (in'de-ans). This is the name by 
which they are still called. The spices and jewels of Asia 
were not to be found, but for all that, as long as he lived, 
he thought it was Asia. He did not dream that he had 
discovered a new and great continent of which the most 
learned men had never heard before. 

Back to Palos. —There were storms on the way home, 
and once Columbus feared his ships would go to the bot¬ 
tom of the sea, but at length they came safe again into 
the port of Palos, from which they had started. When 
the people saw them they rang the church bells and shouted 
with joy. Their friends had been seven months away, and 
many had thought they would never see them again, so 
they were very glad. 

The Welcome Home. —The news spread fast, and every 
one was full of joy. We may be sure that the good prior 
and the son of Columbus gave him a glad welcome home. 
Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, were 
then at Barcelona (bar-say-lo'nah), a city many miles 
away. Columbus sent them word of what he had found, 
and set out for that city himself. He was not now on 
foot, a poor wanderer whom nobody would look at, but he 
rode a noble horse, and all the people ran out to see him 
pass and greeted him with shouts and cheers. 

22 


THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 

Entering Barcelona. —Columbus rode into Barcelona in 
grand state, for many of the nobles of Spain came with 
him on horseback and in rich dresses. But the people 
cared most to see the strange red men he brought with him, 
with the bright feathers and golden trinkets in their hair, 
and their painted faces. There were also men carrying 
rare birds and plants and other strange things from the 
New World. 

Honor to Columbus.— The king and queen sat on their 
royal throne to welcome the great discoverer,* and, to 
do him more honor, they made him sit down by their 
side and tell the story of his wonderful voyage. When 
he had done so, they fell on their knees and gave praise 
to God. We may be sure that this made Columbus very 
proud and happy. Even those who had laughed at him 
and called him crazy were now glad enough to hear a word 
from his lips. 

Columbus in Chains.— Columbus was not very happy 
afterwards. The rest of his life was full of care and 
trouble. He crossed the ocean three times more, but the 
king of Spain did not do what he had promised, and once 
Columbus was sent back to Spain with chains on his hands 
and feet. This was a great shame, and the king and queen 
were angry at the man who had done it, but they did not 
do justice to Columbus and give him back the rights of 
which he had been robbed. He kept the chains in his 


* Discoverer: One who discovers or finds new places or things. 

2a. 




THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 


room, and asked to have them buried with him when he 
should die. They were all that Spain gave him for finding 
the New World. 

The Discoverer Dies.—All the later life of the great dis- 

At one time his ship 
was cast on shore 
and he and his men 
were nearly starved. 
The queen Avas his 
best friend, but she 
died, and he was 
treated worse than 
ever. Soon after¬ 
wards he also died, 
a sad and poor 
old man. The time 
came when Spain was very proud of him, but this did not 
do any good to the man who was left to die almost without 
a friend. 

Try to recall what you have just studied and tell in your own 
words of— 

1. The voyage of Columbus. 

2. The signs of land. 

3. What the red men were like. 

4. How Columbus was received in Spain. 

5. How he was treated afterwards. 

6. His death. 

Remember the date, 1492. 

Set sail August 3, 1492—discovered land October 12, 1492. 

24 


coverer was one of pain and sorrow. 



COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 









JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT 


JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT. 

John Cabot.—The story of the land which Columbus 
had found spread far and wide; men heard of it with won¬ 
der and hope, and soon other sailors set out for its far-off 
shores. The first of these was an old man who had trav¬ 
elled in many lands, but who then lived in Bristol, a sea¬ 
port town of England. His name was John Cabot (cab'ot), 
and he came from Italy, as Columbus had done. 

Where Cabot Went. —It was in the spring of the year 
1497 that John Cabot set sail with a small ship and a 
few men, some of whom were his own sons. With a 
bold heart he sailed away into the seas of the north, and 
after many days came in sight of land, as Columbus had 
done five years before. But the shores he saw were cold 
and bleak, not warm and sunny like those of the south. 

The Land First Seen. —We are not sure where this land 
was which Cabot saw, though we know that it was on the 
coast of the country now called Canada (kan'ah-dah). He 
named it “ The land first seen.” There was not a man nor 
a house to be seen, but he landed and set up a large cross, 
and raised two flags, the flag of England and the flag of 
Venice (venfis). Venice was the city he had lived in before 
he came to Bristol. 

The Mainland.— Cabot sailed on and soon saw land 
again. It is thought that the first land he had come to was 
an island, but this land was the mainland of the great con¬ 
tinent of America. He was the first to see the continent, 

25 


JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT 


for Columbus at that time had seen only islands. All the 
land he saw he said belonged to the king of England. 

The Return.—Cabot kept on sailing about, looking for 
the lands where spices grow, for he thought, as Columbus 
had done, that he had reached Asia, and hoped to fill his 
ship with spices and silks. But as he found only barren 
lands, with no men or towns, he got tired and set sail for 
home again. All he brought with him that we know of were 
some Indian traps for catching wild animals and the rib of a 
whale he had picked up on shore. In a fine old church in 
Bristol there still hangs a whale’s rib, and many think that 
this is the one which Cabot brought home. 

The Great Admiral.—The king and the people were very 
glad to see John Cabot home again and proud of what he 
had done for England. And he was as proud as they, for 
he walked about the streets of Bristol dressed in silks, 
while the people ran after him with cheers and called him 
“ The Great Admiral.” * The king gave him a present in 
money. The story is told that Cabot acted as if he owned 
the world, and began to promise islands to his friends. 
Even his barber was to have an island. The barber grew 
so full of conceit about his island that he put on all the 
airs of a noble count. 

A New Voyage.—The next year a new voyage was made, 
this time by Sebastian (se-bast'yan) Cabot, the son of John 
Cabot. He had more ships and more men than his father 


* Admiral: The highest officer in the navy. 

26 




JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT 


had taken, and he sailed north until he came to a place 
where the water was full of icebergs, or great masses oi 
floating ice. Then he went south along the coast as far as 
what is now the State of North Carolina. 



CABOT’S SHIPS AMONG THE ICEBERGS. 


Strange Things are Seen.—He saw no more spices and 
gold than his father had done, but there were red men 
like those whom Columbus had named Indians, and who 
were dressed in the skins of wild beasts. Cabot took some 
of them back with him, that the people of England might 
see what kind of men lived in the west. He saw deer 
larger than those of England, and white bears that swam 
out into the sea and caught fish in their claws. The fish 
were a wonder to behold. In some places the codfisn were 













JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT 


so thick in the water that the ships could hardly sail through 
them. 

The Great Seaman.— When young Cabot got home 
again the people were as proud of him as they had been 
of his father. They called him “ The Great Seaman,” and 
through all his life he was a famous man. When he was 
older he crossed the ocean again, and made a long voyage 
for the king of Spain. He lived to be a very old man. 

The Name America.— Men called the land which Co¬ 
lumbus and Cabot had found “The New World,” and 
years passed before it had any other name. It should 
have been called Columbia, after Columbus, but it was 
not. An account of it was printed by an Italian (it-tal'yan) 
seaman whose first name was Amerigo (am-a-re'go) or 
Americus (ah-mer'e-cus), and some one called the country 
America after his name. This was not just, but the name 
came into use, and the whole country is still called America, 
and the people who live in it are called Americans. The 
name Columbia is often given to America in songs. 

Tell about these things : 

1. The voyage of John Cabot. 

2. How he was received at home. 

3. What Sebastian Cabot discovered. 

4. Why this country was named America. 


2b 


DE LEON AND DE SOTO 


DE LEON AND DE SOTO. 


The Gold Fever.— There was a busy time in Spain after 
Columbus came back and told the story of the new land 
he had found. The gold he brought with him set the 
Spaniards wild. Some of them thought that the soil of 
the New World must be yellow with gold, and soon many 
set sail to seek their fortunes beyond the seas. They had 
been told of a warm and lovely land, full of birds and 
flowers, to which they were glad to go. But no one 
wanted to go to the land of ice and snow which the Cabots 
had found. 

Ponce de Leon. —One of those who crossed the sea 
from Spain was an old man named Ponce de Leon (pon'- 
tha da la'own). He was the first to settle in the island of 
Porto Rico (por'to re'co), which 
is now a part of the United 
States. This man did not care 
so much for gold, for he had 
plenty of that. But he wanted 
to live on and on, and he would 
have given all his money to be 
a young man again. 

The Fountain of Youth.— 



PONCE DE LEON. 


Now, at that time there was a fable which many men 
thought was true, for even wise men in those days believed 
much which none of you would believe, young as you are. 

It was said that somewhere in Asia there was a magic 

29 


DE LEON AND DE SOTO 


spring that would bring back their lost youth to all who 
drank of its waters. It was called the Fountain of Youth. 
America was not Asia, but all men thought that it was, and 
De Leon hoped to find in it this magic spring. He asked 
the Indians if they knew of such a spring, and they pointed 
to the north and west. What they wanted was to get rid 
of the Spaniards, for they hated these white men who made 
slaves of them. 

Florida.—It was in the year 1513 that the old knight 
took ship and sailed away in search of the magic spring. 
North and west he went, and on Easter Sunday he saw the 
shores of a new land, so bright with flowers that he called 
it by a name which in English means “ Flowery Easter.” 
It is still called Florida, from the name which he gave it, 
and is now one of the States of this country. 

Seeking the Fountain. —North and south, east and west, 
the old man looked for the Fountain of Youth. He found 
many springs of sparkling waters, and bathed in them, 
hoping they would make him young, but out of them all 
he came with white hair and wrinkled face. None of the 
Indians had ever heard of such a spring. At length, sad 
at heart to feel that he must soon die, he sailed away, an 
old man still. He came again some years afterwards, but 
this time the Indians fought with the white men, and De 
Leon was struck with an arrow and was hurt so badly that 
he soon died. So he found death instead of youth. Sick 
people now go to Florida in search of health, but no one 

in our days hopes to find there the Fountain of Youth. 

30 


DE LEON AND DE SOTO 


Fernando de Soto. —Other Spaniards went to Florida, 
one of whom was named Fernando de Soto (fer-nan'do 
da so'to). This man did not seek for youth, but for power 
and wealth. Two Spaniards named Cortez (kor'tez) and 
Pizarro (pe-zar'ro) had gone to Mexico and Peru, and found 
there great empires and large sums of gold. De Soto had 
been with Pizarro, who had conquered * the great empire of 
Peru, and he hoped to find another Indian empire, rich in 
gold, in the north, and conquer it for himself. 

De Soto’s Company. —King Charles of Spain had made 
De Soto governor of Cuba and Florida, and many proud 
young men joined him, for he was known to be a brave 
soldier, and had just married a rich and beautiful young 
wife. So with nine ships and six hundred men he sailed 
away, all the gay company full of 
hope and their bright banners floating 
proudly in the breeze. 

De Soto in Florida. — It was in 
the year 1539 that De Soto and his 
men landed in Florida. He had left 
his young wife in Cuba to wait for his 
return, not dreaming she would never 
see him again. He brought with him 
two hundred horses, and a drove of 
hogs to serve for fresh meat. He also brought blood-hounds 
to hunt the Indians, and chains to fasten on their hands and 


* Conquered: Took possession of; became master of. 

Hi 



FERNANDO DE SOTO. 





DE LEON AND DE SOTO 


feet, for the cruel Spaniards hoped to make slaves of the 
poor red men. In the ships were great iron chests, which 
they hoped to bring back full of gold and other things of 
value. 

The Journey West. —For two long years De Soto and 
his men made their way through the country, fighting with 
the Indians, burning their houses, robbing them of their 
food, and treating them with great cruelty. But no gold 
and no empire were found, and the Indians would not 
make peace with them. In one terrible battle at the Indian 
town of Mobile (mo-bele') they lost all their baggage and 
eighty of their horses, while many of the men were killed 
and wounded. 

The Mississippi River.— When the Spaniards asked for 
gold the Indians pointed west; so they kept going west till 
they had travelled more than fifteen hundred miles. At 
last they reached a broad and beautiful river, the grand 
Mis-sis-sip'pi, which no white man had ever seen before. 
They looked on it with eyes of wonder, for in all Europe 
there was no such stream. Yet it was a weak and sad com¬ 
pany that gazed upon the mighty river, for many of them 
had lost all hope, and their joy and gay manners had gone. 

De Soto Dies. —De Soto was as bold as he was cruel. 

Nothing could make him turn back. He crossed the great 

river with his men, and for months they roamed through 

the broad west, looking for rich cities, but finding only toil 

and hunger. At length they came back to the great river, 

and here De Soto, worn out with his labors, took sick and 

32 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


died. He was buried under the waters of the mighty stream 
so that the red men, who hated and feared him, should not 
know he was dead. The men then built boats and floated 
down the river to the Gulf of Mexico, but half of them had 
died and the rest were nearly starved. After that the 
Spaniards let the country of the north alone. They had 
found only war and hunger where they sought for slaves 
and gold, so they afterwards stayed in the warm south. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. The legend of the Fountain of Youth. 

2. The story of Ponce de Leon. 

3. What De Soto hoped to find. 

4. The story of his journey and death. 

THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH. 

French Fishers.—What would you think took the next 
sailors across the seas ? It was not gold this time, but fish. 
When word came to the bold fishermen of France that the 
Cabots had found codfish so thick as almost to stop their 
ships, they did not wait to ask king or prince, but sailed 
straight across the wide ocean in their small vessels, and 
were soon catching codfish by the thousands in the waters 
of Newfoundland (new'-fund-land). 

The Fishing Fleet.—These hardy men did not tell of 
what they had seen. They were too busy for that. Fish 
were more to them than gold, and they went again and 

again, and came back with their vessels filled with fish, 

33 


3 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


until every year a great fleet of these vessels crossed the 
seas. Fifty years afterwards it was said that as many as 
four hundred fishing vessels sailed from Europe to the 
waters of Newfoundland every year. These were not all 
from France. The fishermen of more than one nation 
found their way to the codfish banks, and came back to 
sell their fish to the people of Europe. 

French Explorers.—Very likely King Francis of France 
did not know what his fishermen were doing. Kings do 
not care very much about what poor people do. But he 



that France had as 


much right to the New World as any other nation. So he 
sent out a ship to America. This ship sailed far along the 
coast, and ten years afterwards, in 1534, another ship 


































THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


sailed up the St. Lawrence River as far as where the city 
of Montreal (mont-re-awf) now stands. 

La Salle.— For one hundred and fifty years after this 
time the French kept on coming to the St. Lawrence River. 
They named the country Canada and settled in many parts 
of it. Some of them 
went west in canoes on 
the river to the great 
lakes, and kept on until 
they reached the Mis¬ 
sissippi River far to the 
north of where De Soto 
had seen it. In 1682 
a brave Frenchman 
named Robert de la 
Salle floated down this 
great river to its mouth. 

He named the country Louisiana (lou'is-e-an-ah) after King 

* 

Louis of France, and claimed the whole of it for his country. 

English Mariners.— You see that the Spanish and the 
French were busy, and you may want to know what the 
English were about. They were not idle, by any means, 
for the English in those days were great sailors, as they are 
to-day. But I do not think you will like what they were 
doing. One of them, whose name was Sir John Hawkins, 
spent his time stealing black men from Africa and selling 
them as slaves to the Spanish in the West Indies. 

Sir Francis Drake.—Sir Francis Drake was another of 

So 






















THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


these captains. If he were living now we would call him a 
pirate. He sailed about, stopping Spanish ships upon the 
seas and taking from them the gold and silver which they 
were carrying home from America. When he could find no 
ships he went on shore and robbed the people who lived in 
the towns. No one blamed these men, and they were 
thought great men in England, for no one then thought it 
wrong to sell black men for slaves or to rob Spanish ships 
and towns. We would not think this honest work to-day. 

Raleigh’s Colonies.—Many years passed before English 
settlers began to come to America. The first of those we 
need name were sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh (raw'lee), 


in 1584. Raleigh was a great friend 
of the queen of England, and sent 
many people across the ocean. A 
little girl was born in Raleigh’s col¬ 
ony who was named Virginia Dare, 
and was the first English child born 
in America. What became of this 
poor little baby no one can tell, for 
no ship was sent out again for three 
years, and when the next ship came 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 


none of the people could be found, though they were 
looked for everywhere. Little Virginia Dare and all her 
friends were gone, and not one was left to tell what had 
become of them. 

The Potato and Tobacco.—Some of the people sent by 

Raleigh to America brought back with them two plants 

36. 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


which are now grown all over the world. One of these 
was the potato, which is one of the most useful of plants. 
This was planted by Raleigh in a garden he had in Ireland, 
and it grew so well and spread so far that the people of 
Ireland now almost live on potatoes. They still point out 
the spot where the first potato was planted. The other 
plant was tobacco. Raleigh planted this also in his garden, 
but it would not grow there, so the people of Ireland have 
to send somewhere else for their tobacco. 

Raleigh and the Servant.— The people of England soon 
learned to smoke tobacco in the Indian fashion. Raleigh 
got to be very fond of it. One morning, while he was 
sitting in his room smoking a pipe of tobacco, his servant 
came in with a mug of ale which he had been told to 
bring. The man had never before seen him smoking, and 
when he saw a cloud of smoke coming from his mouth he 
was so scared that he flung the ale in his face and ran 
away to bring water. He thought his master was on fire, 
and was trying to put out the fire with the ale. It is not 
likely that Sir Walter thanked him or that he cared to take 
his ale in that way. 

Tell in your own language— 

1. Why the French came first to America. 

2. What part of the country the French settled. 

3. The story of Robert de la Salle. 

4. What the English first did. 

5. What you remember about Raleigh’s colonies. 

6. The story of the potato and tobacco. 

37 


CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 


CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

Sailing up an American River. —On a fine morning in 
the month of May, nearly three hundred years ago, three 
small ships came sailing up a river in America. And as 
they sailed along they saw so many bright spring flowers 
on the banks that every one on board was full of joy at the 
sight. This was in the year 1607. At that time this great 
country, which now has many millions of white men and 
hundreds of busy cities, had not even a farm and a house 
that a white man lived in, but was covered with woods in 
which the red Indians roamed. 

The Gold-Seekers. —It was the James River, in Virginia 
(ver-jin'e-ah), that these ships had come into. Glad indeed 
were the men on board to see green shores, for they 
had been long at sea in their little vessels, and no doubt 
had been tossed about by storms and beaten by the waves 
until they were sick of the sea. It would have been better 
had most of them stayed at home, for they had not come 
to work, but to hunt for gold, and they looked about them 
as if they expected to see the yellow metal growing on 
trees. But they had come to a place where they would 
have to work if they wished to live, for they were far 
away from the land of gold. 

John Smith. —By good luck there was one man on 
board the ships who knew what he was about. This 
man’s name was John Smith, and his life had been so 

strange and full of adventure that you should know some- 

38 


CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 


thing about it. He was a poor boy, and early in life was 
put to learn a trade, but he did not like his master or his 
work, so he ran away, and got out of England in a ship, and 
went far through foreign lands. First 
he became a soldier; then he was in 
a vessel that was cast ashore by a 
storm. 

At one time he was robbed and 
became so poor that he almost 
starved. He tells us that he was 
once thrown overboard by some 
men who said that he had brought 
on a storm. Very likely he had 
been talking too much about what he could do, for he was 
given to talking and boasting; but, at any rate, he got safely 
again on shore. 

Fighting* the Turks.—The next we hear about John 
Smith is in the war with the Turks, the people of Turkey, 
who were fierce and savage soldiers and gave the people 
of Europe much trouble. The young English soldier did 
not fear them, but fought with three of them at once. 
When the fight was over they were all dead and he was 
the hero of the army. 

Sold as a Slave.—Afterwards he was taken prisoner by 
the Turks and was sold by them as a slave. His master 
put a heavy iron collar round his neck and set him to 
threshing grain with a wooden flail. All we need say is 

that John Smith escaped from this cruel man and got back 

39 



JOHN SMITH. 


CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 


to England in safety. There he joined a party of men who 
were about to cross the ocean to America. To go to a 
new country and see new sights was just the kind of life 
for the daring young soldier, who was not afraid of any¬ 
thing and was ready for any danger. 

Fool’s Gold.—But now we must go back to the ships that 
were sailing up James River. They went on until the men 
on board saw a place that pleased them very much, and here 
they all went ashore. They called the place Jamestown, as 
they had called the river the James, after King James of 
England. The weather was warm, and so, instead of build¬ 
ing houses and planting grain, as no doubt John Smith 
wanted them to do, most of them spent their time hunting 
for gold. Some time afterwards they found a yellow stuff 
which they thought was gold. Then they went to work 
in earnest and loaded a vessel with this yellow substance, 
which they sent to England. But it turned out to be a 
substance which is called “ fool’s gold,” and the whole 
shipload was worth no more than if it had been sand. So 
they who thought themselves rich found themselves as poor 
as ever. 

Saved by Corn.—The foolish gold-seekers were soon 
in trouble. They ate up all their food and were nearly 
starving. Some of them died of fever, and some were 
killed by the Indians. They would all have starved to 
death if Captain Smith had not got them some corn, 
which the Indians gave him in exchange for beads and 
other trinketa 


40 


CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 


The Indians and the Compass. —Only for John Smith 
it is likely they would all have died. He saved the colony, 
for his good sense was worth more to it than a mine of 
gold. He kept himself 



always busy, going here 
and there,, sailing about, 
talking and trading with 
the Indians, trying to 
find out something new. 
At one time he was taken 
prisoner by a party of 


Indians, who were glad 
enough to capture this 
brave man. To keep 
them from doing him 
harm he took a little 
compass from his pocket 
and showed it to them. 


CAPT. JOHN SMITH SURP.ENDERS TO INDIANS. 


When they saw the 

needle always pointing to the north they thought it must 
be the work of magic, and took him off through the woods 
to Powhatan, (pow-ha-tan') their great chief. 

The Talking* Paper. —Captain Smith made them think 
he could do other wonderful things. He wrote on a piece 
of paper, telling his friends at Jamestown where he was 
and the danger he was in. An Indian took this to the 
town, and when he came back and told the chiefs that the 
paper had talked to the white men and told them all about 


41 








CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 


Smith and his trouble they did not know what to make of 
it. They thought that Smith must be a great magician to 
be able to make paper talk. 

Smith Condemned to Death.— But all this was not 
enough to save his life. It may be that Powhatan was 
afraid that a man so wise as this might destroy him and all 
his tribe. At any rate, as Captain Smith tells us, Powhatan 
had him tied hand and foot and laid down with his head on 
a log, while an Indian stood by with a great club ready to 
knock out his brains. If Powhatan had raised his hand or 
said a word it would have been all over with Captain Smith. 

Pocahontas.— Now a strange thing took place. A little 
Indian girl, the daughter of Powhatan, whose heart was 

filled with pity for the poor 
white man, ran in and begged 
her father to let him live. When 
she found he would not do this, 
she threw herself down by Cap¬ 
tain Smith, and put her head on 
his, so that they could not kill 
him without killing her too. 
This touched the heart of the 
great chief, and he let the white 
man live. This kind little girl 
was named Pocahontas (po-kah- 
hon'tas). She was only about ten years old. When she 
grew up she became the wife of an Englishman, and went 
to London, where she died. 



POCAHONTAS. 


42 



CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE 


A White Man’s Trick.— When John Smith was set free 
and went back to Jamestown some Indians went with him. 
Powhatan wanted to be paid for his prisoner, and asked 
for two of the great cannon which the white men had, and 
whose noise seemed like thunder to the red men. He 
also asked for a grindstone. Smith promised him all these, 
and when Jamestown was reached he showed them to the 
Indians, and said they might take them. But the red men 
soon found that they could not lift one of these heavy 
things from the ground. So all they got for their prisoner 
were some beads and buttons and other cheap trifles. 

Tell what you can— 

1. About the ship on James River. 

2. The early life of John Smith. 

3. What the men thought was gold. 

4. What Captain Smith showed the Indians. 

5. The story of Pocahontas. 

Date to be remembered: The first settlement in America, 1607. 

¥¥ 

CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE. 

Wliat the Indians Thought.— For a time the people at 
Jamestown had no more trouble with the Indians. The 
poor, ignorant savages thought that Captain Smith was 
more than a man, and could do things which no man could 
do. They even fancied that he could make it rain at any 

time he pleased, and when dry weather came they asked 

43 


CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE 


him to pray for rain. We do not know if Smitn did so or 
not, or if any rain came in answer to his prayers. 

Smith Made Governor.— The people had over them 
what is called a council; that is, a number of men who 
were chosen to govern the colony. John Smith was one 
of these, and he did so much for the people and proved so 
active and useful that he was soon put at the head of the 
council and made the governor of the colony. 

Work or Starve.—Jt was not a very easy thing to be 
governor over such a set of men. Not many of them were 
willing to work. They would rather lie on the grass all 
day long, or hunt for gold, or fish in the river, than build 
houses and plant corn. This did not suit Captain Smith, 
and he told them they must work or they should not eat. 
There was no food for those who did not earn it. They 
knew very well that John Smith meant what he said, so 
they took their axes and their hoes and set out to the forest 
to chop wood and to the fields to plant corn. 

A Cure for Swearing.— The lazy fellows did not like 
Smith’s new rules, and as they worked they grumbled a 
good deal, and some of them swore at a great rate. Cap- 
fain Smith heard them, and made up his mind to stop 
their swearing. He took a queer way to do it. At night, 
when the day’s work was done, he had a can of cold water 
poured down their sleeves for every time they had sworn. 
You may well think there was not much swearing after that. 

Seeking the Pacific.— Many other things are told of 
Captain John Smith. He thought that the country was not 

44 


CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE 


very wide, and that he could sail up the James River or up 
the Chesapeake Bay until he reached the Pacific Ocean. 
No one then knew how wide the country was. Captain 
Smith tried it, but he found the rivers getting smaller till 
he could go no farther, so he gave up the effort. 

An Adventure with Indians.—Though he did not find the 
Pacific, he had many adventures. At one place the Indians 
shot at the men in the boats with arrows. Then they came 
back and danced about 
with baskets of corn in 
their hands, trying to get 
the white men to come 
on shore. But Smith 
told his men to fire off 
their guns, which scared 
the savages so that they 
dropped their baskets 
and ran into the woods. 

Then he went ashore 
and left there some 
beads, little looking- 
glasses, and other trifles 
for them to get. When 
the Indians saw those presents they were much pleased and 

became friends of the white men. 

The Sick Men’s Hats.—At another time Indians shot 

arrows at the boat when some of the men were sick. But 

Smith covered the sick men so that they could not be seen, 

45 



SMITH MEETING THE INDIANS. 





CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE 


and raised their hats on sticks so that the boat seemed full 
of well men. This scared the Indians away. Soon after 
another party of Indians tried to kill the men in the boat, 
but Captain Smith had put up Indian shields along its sides 
so that the arrows would not come through. In this way 
he saved the lives of himself and his men. 

The Stolen Pistol.—The Indians were great thieves and 
stole things from the settlers, and this Captain Smith tried 
to stop. At one time two brothers stole a pistol. They 
were caught, and one of them was locked up in prison 
while the other was sent to bring back the pistol. He 
was told that this was the only way to get his brother 
off. When he came back and the prison was opened 
the poor Indian broke into cries of grief, for his brother 
lay there like a dead man. A charcoal fire had been 
built to keep him warm, and the gas had almost smothered 
him. 

The Dead Alive.—The fresh air soon brought the In¬ 
dian to his senses again, and the man who had seemed 
dead stood up alive and well. You may be sure this gave 
Captain Smith great fame with the Indians, for they now 
thought that he could bring dead people to life. 

The Gunpowder Thief.—Another thing helped to keep 
the Indians from stealing. One day one of them stole 
some gunpowder and also a piece of the iron armor of the 
white men. He tried to dry the powder by putting it into 
the armor and holding it over the fire as he had seen the 

white men do. But the fire was too hot, and the powder 

46 



CAPTAIN SMITH’S LATER LIFE 


went off in a great flash of flame that almost scared the 
Indian out of his wits. 

Smith Goes to England.—The next thing that took 
place was bad for the colony. Some gunpowder went off 
this time among the whites. A bag of it took fire and shot 
up in a flash. Captain Smith was close by, and was hurt 
so badly that he had to go back to England. He had been 
two years in Virginia, but he never went back there again. 

Smith Sails to New England.—Five years afterwards 
Captain Smith crossed the ocean again, and sailed along the 
coast of New England, where he traded with the Indians 
for furs and made a good map of the coast. When he got 
back he asked his friends to start a colony in New Eng¬ 
land. He tried to go back himself with a few men, but 
had very bad luck. One of his vessels lost its masts in a 
storm. Then he was chased by a pirate, and afterwards 
he was made prisoner by a French privateer. They made 
him help them fight the Spanish. At length he get back to 
England again, but he did not try to start any more col¬ 
onies, and died there when he was fifty-two years old. 

Tell about— 

1. How Captain Smith made the lazy men work. 

2. How he stopped them from swearing. 

3. His adventures with the Indians. 

4. Why he had to go home. 


47 


THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA 


THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA. 

The People Sent to Virginia.—Now let us take a look 
at the colony after Captain Smith went home. One bad 
thing soon took place,—the men quit work. There was 
nobody now to make them work or to stop them from 
swearing, and so they fell back into their old lazy ways. 
Other men were sent out, but these came from the jails 
and slums of London, so that things soon grew worse. 
It was a shame and folly to send such men as these to 
a colony. 

The Starving Time.—What food the people had was 
soon eaten up. Captain Smith was not there to deai with 
the Indians, and they would not bring food to Jamestown, 
for they did not like the kind of men that were there now. 
Soon there were terrible times. Winter came on and many 
took sick and died. Others starved to death, some were 
killed by the Indians, and of five hundred men only sixty 
lived through that dreadful winter. They called it after¬ 
wards “The Starving Time.” 

The Flight Stopped.—When spring came those who 
were left alive got on board a vessel and started down the 
river to go back to England. They had enough of Virginia, 
as the colony was called. But they had not gone far when 
they saw the sails of a number of ships coming up the 
river. Soon these vessels came in sight, filled with men. 
It was Lord Delaware (del'ah-ware), the new governor of 

the colony, who was coming with plenty of food and sup- 

48 


THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA 


plies. We may be sure they were very glad to see these 
ships. They quickly turned back again, and in this way 
the colony was saved. 





LORD DELAWARE’S SHIPS. 


Tobacco and Slaves.—After that for a time all went on 
well. They began to plant tobacco in their fields, and this 
sold for so high a price in England that many of the people 
became well off. In 1619, about ten years after Captain 
Smith went home, a Dutch ship came to Jamestown and 
sold the tobacco planters a number of negroes for slaves. 
These were the first negro slaves in this country. 

Indian Troubles.—Years passed on, and more people 
came to Virginia and spread over the country, and in time 
many of the planters grew rich, and there were thousands 














THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA 


of people along the James River and in the country to the 
north. The Indians did not like to see the white men 
spreading in this way over their hunting-grounds, and 
twice they tried to kill them all. Hundreds of men and 
women were slain by the savage red men, but in the end 
the Indians were driven away and all their lands were 
taken by the whites. 

Governor Berkeley.—Long after Captain Smith was 
dead and buried new trouble came to the colony. It was 
then ruled by a governor named Berkeley (berk'ly), who 
acted as if all the people were slaves and he was their 
master. Many of them became angry at this, but nothing 

was done until a young 
man named Bacon put 
himself at their head. 

Bacon’s Rebellion.—- 
Bacon wanted to march 
against the Indians, who 
were again killing the 
settlers, but the gover¬ 
nor would not let him 
do so. He then marched 
to Jamestown, where 
Governor Berkeley was. 
When the governor saw 
him coming he ran away 
in great haste. But Bacon knew that he would soon be 

back again with soldiers, so he had the town set on fire and 

60 






CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON 


burned to the ground. Nothing but ashes was left of the 
first English town in America. 

After the Rebellion.—Soon after this the bold young 
planter took sick and died, and the war came to an end. 
There was no other leader to take his place. The gov¬ 
ernor now came back, and acted very cruelly, for he called 
the men who had helped Bacon rebels, and had more than 
twenty of them hanged. He might have done worse still, 
but the king, who heard how he was acting, ordered him 
back to England and put an end to his hangings. 

Later Times in Virginia.—After that time things went 
on better in Virginia, and more and more people came 
there, until the settlements spread far and wide over the 
land, and the old days of poverty and starvation were 
followed by new days of wealth and plenty. 

Tell what you can about— 

1. The starving time. 

2. How times got better. 

3. The troubles with the Indians. 

4. The story of Bacon’s rebellion. 

¥¥ 

CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON. 

A Great City.—Very likely some of the boys and girls 
who use this book live in the great city of New York. 
Most of those who do not live there must have heard of it 

as one of the greatest cities of the world. It is so large 

51 


CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON 


and full of people, and its stores and houses are spread 
over so many miles of ground, and are so big and solid, 
that one would think it had stood there at least a thousand 
years. It is hard to think that about three hundred years 
ago the place where this grand city now stands was covered 
with woods, in which the red men hunted wild animals 
with the bow and arrow, and where there was no building 
larger than an Indian hut or wigwam. 

A Wonderful Change.—But this was the case not only 
with New Y^ork, but with all this vast country, with its 
many hundreds of cities and millions of people. It is not 
very long ago since only the red men dwelt here, forests 
covered the whole land, and Indian hunters roamed under 
the leaves and branches of the trees in search of game and 
built their rude huts under the shade of the woodlands. 
You must want to know how all this change came about. 
You have been told how white men came from England 
and settled in Virginia. You will now be told how the 
same thing took place in New York. 

What the Nations Did.—While the Spanish, the French, 
and the English were coming to this country, the king 
of Portugal sent ships around the Cape of Good Hope, 
at the south end of Africa, and they had in this way 
come to far-off India. Every year these ships came back 
with silks and spices and other precious goods. Other 
countries wished to take part in this rich trade, and one of 
these was the country of Holland, whose people we call 
the Dutch. 


52 


CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON 


The Bold Englishman.—There was an English sea- 
captain named Henry Hudson who 
had tried to get to Asia by way of 
the far north, and was so daring 
that men called him u the bold Eng¬ 
lishman.” The Dutch gave him one 
of their ships called u The Half- 
Moon,” and sent him off to see 
what he could find. He went north 
until he could go no farther be¬ 
cause of the ice, then he sailed to 
the coast of America. This Avas in the year 1609, two 
years after Captain Smith had set out for Virginia. 

Seeking a Passage.—Up and down the coast Captain 
Hudson sailed, looking for a passage through the land by 
Avhich he might get to Asia. He thought, as did many 
others, that America was very narroAv. If he had known, 
as Ave know, that it is three thousand miles Avide, he and 
Captain Smith Avould not ha\ T e tried to find a river running 
across it. But in those days no one kneAv anything about 
it, for they had only seen the coast. 

A Beautiful Bay.—Captain Hudson after a time came 
into a broad and beautiful bay, which he said Avas “ as 
pleasant Avith grass and floAvers as he had ever seen, and 
very SAveet smells.” Great trees came doAvn to the edge 
of the AA^ater, and the red men paddled about the ship in 
their canoes. They had never seen a ship before, and did 

not know what to make of it. 

53 



HENRY HUDSON. 


CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON 


Going Up-Stream.— The body of water they had come 
to was what we now know as New York Bay. A broad 

river runs into it, which 
is now called Hudson 
River, after Henry Hud¬ 
son. 

The ship sailed up 
this river, which Captain 
Hudson hoped would 
lead him to a new ocean 
on the other side of the 
land. On it went, past 
fields of green corn, and 
groves of high trees, and 
great rock cliffs that rose 
like towers. “ It was a 
very good land to fall in with,” said Captain Hudson, “and 
a pleasant land to see.” 

A Feast with a Chief.—At length they came to moun¬ 
tains, which rose on both sides of the river. Here the 
Indians brought them corn and pumpkins and tobacco. 
At the end of five days they came to a point on the other 
side of the mountains, where the city of Hudson now 
stands. Captain Hudson here went ashore to visit an old 
chief who lived in a round house built of bark. The In¬ 
dians had great heaps of corn and beans, and made a feast 
for him. They offered him roast dog to eat. This they 
thought the best meat they could cook for him. We do 
















CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON 


not know whether Captain Hudson ate any of the roast 
dog or not. The Indians broke their arrows and threw 
them into the fire, to show him that they did not mean to 
do him any harm. 

The End of the Voyage.—When the captain got on 
board again he kept on up the river, until the water grew 
so shallow that he was afraid the ship might touch bottom. 
This was about one hundred and fifty miles above the bay, 
whefe the city of Albany (awfbah-nee) now stands. He 
was sure now that he could not reach Asia by this route, 
so the ship was turned and sailed down-stream. 

Captain Hudson’s Pate.—Captain Hudson soon afte! 
made his way back to Holland and told of what he had 

m 

found. The Indians had many furs, he said, and a good 
trade might be made with them. The next year he came 
back to America. This time he sailed north and entered 
that great body of water now known as Hudson Bay. 
Here the crew nearly ran out of food, and as Captain 
Hudson wanted to go on, some wicked men among them 
put him and some others into an open boat and set them 
adrift on the waters. They were never heard of again, 
and they must have died in that cold and lonely bay. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. About this country before the white men came 

2. About Captain Hudson and his voyages. 

3. How he sailed up the Hudson River. 

4. The fate of Captain Hudson. 

Remember the date 1609. 


66 


# 


THE COLONY OF NEW YORK 


THE COLONY OF NEW YORK. 

The Coming- of the Dutch.—It was not long before 
Dutch vessels came to New York Bay to trade with the 
Indians for their furs. These people built a fort and some 
log huts on the island where the river runs into the bay, 
and more of them came until there was quite a settlement. 
This they named New Am-ster-dam', after the city of Am¬ 
sterdam in Holland. 

Buying an Island.—The Dutch paid the Indians for the 
island on which they had settled, and where part of the 



DUTCH TRADING WITH INDIANS. 


great city of New York now stands, with some cheap goods 
worth about twenty-four dollars. This land was not worth 

much at that time, as you may see, though now it is 

fi6 

















THE COLONY OF NEW YORK 



worth a vast sum of money. They also traded with them 
for the furs and skins of wild beasts, which they caught 
in their traps. 

Old Silver Leg*.—Thus time went on, and there were 
troubles with the Indians and the Eng¬ 
lish, and the town grew larger and 
larger, and men were sent from Holland fA 
to govern the people. Some of these 
were not fit to govern themselves. One 
of them was an honest and stubborn old 
fellow named Peter Stuyvesant (sti've- 
sant), whom some of the people called 
“ Old Silver Leg,” for he had a wooden leg with bands of 
silver round it. 

The English Capture.—While he was governor some 
English vessels came into New Ycrk Bay and sent a letter 
on shore, which said that all this land belonged to England 
and the town must be given up to them. Old Peter tore 
up the letter and stamped about in a great rage on his 
wooden leg. But the people did not like the way he had 
treated them and would not fight for him, so he had to give 
up the town. 


PETER STUYVESANT. 


New York City.—The name of the place was now 
changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, the 
brother of the English king. After that time the people 
had many troubles, but the town grew large and wealthy, 
and ships came in great numbers, loaded deep with goods. 

Where the Indians once paddled their bark canoes hun- 

57 


THE COLONY OF NEW YORK 


dreds of great ships and steamers now come and go, and 
where they built their wigwams thousands of great build¬ 
ings stand. 

The Houses of the Dutch.—The Dutch in New York 
lived in a way of their own, not like that of the English; 
so it may be well to say something about their mode of 
life. Their houses were like those of Holland, built of 
wood or of small black and yellow bricks, with steep roofs 
and many doors and windows. There was a great brass 



SCENE IN NEW AMSTERDAM. 


knocker on the front door, which they used instead ot the 
bell that is used now. They had great open fireplaces, 
with colored tiles, and the houses were kept very clean, 
for the Dutch women could not bear to see dirt. White 


58 












THE COLONY OF NEW YORK 


sand covered the floors instead of carpets, and this was 
swept up into lines and patterns with the broom. 

Workers and Idlers.—The Dutch women Avere neat 
and careful and were good cooks. They were busy 
workers, for each house had a great chest-full of linen, 
which they had made on their spinning-wheels. The men 
did not work as hard as the women. They liked better to 
sit on their porches with long pipes in their mouths and 
tell stories and play games. 

How they Dressed.—Their dress was very odd. The 
men wore two or three pairs of knee- 
breeches, one over the other, with 
large buckles at their knees and on 
their shoes, and great buttons of brass 
or silver on their coats. The women 
wore a number of short and bright- 
colored petticoats, with red, green, 
or blue stockings, and high-heeled 
shoes. They wore white muslin caps 
on their heads. They would have 
looked very queer to us, for no one dresses that way now. 

Feast Days.—Christmas and Easter and New Year’s 
were great days with them. On these days they feasted 
and had sports and games. The Dutch brought us our 
“ Santa Claus” at Christmas and our colored eggs at 
Easter, and other things good to have. They knew how 
to make nice things for the table, such as doughnuts 

and crullers, which people still like. Many of the best 

59 



CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH 


people in New York to-day came from the old-time Dutch 
settlers. 

Tall about— 

1. The Dutch settlers. 

2. How the English took the island. 

3. The growth of New York City. 

4. How the Dutch lived. 

5. What feast days they had. 

¥¥ 

CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH. 

Two Brave Captains.—Captain John Smith, as we have 
seen, did very good work in Virginia. He tried to do as 
good work in New England, but was stopped by bad luck. 
Another captain, named Miles Standish, took his place in 
New England. Miles Standish was a little man, but he 
had a big heart, and while he lived the Indians took care to 
let the whites alone. Let us see who this brave captain 
was and who were the people that came with him. 

At Cape Cod.—It was late in November of the year 
1620, and the winter was close at hand, when a vessel that 
had crossed the stormy seas came to land at Cape Cod. 
This cape you may find on the map. It is at the end of a 
narrow strip of sand, more than sixty miles long, that 
comes out from the lower point of Mas-sa-chu'setts, and 
looks like a long arm bent up at the elbow. Behind this 
sand strip ships can find shelter from the rough waves. 

GO 


CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH 


J 

The People on the Ship.—The ship that thus came 
to land was named the MayTlow-er. It had on board about 
one hundred people, 
most of them men and 
women, but there were 
some boys and girls 
among them. They 
were glad enough to see 
land again after being 
tossed so long on the 
stormy waves. These 
people had suffered much at home, and had crossed the 
ocean to get to a country where they could live in peace. 

How They were Treated in England.—In England at 
that time most people thought that everybody should think 
in the same way about religion as the king did, and go to 
the same kind of church. Those who did not do so were 
treated very badly, some of them being whipped, or put 
into the stocks, or sent to prison. A number of them went 
to Holland, for the Dutch there let them have any kind of 
church they wanted. 

Why They Came to America.—In time these people 
got tired of Holland, and made up their minds to go to 
America. There they could get all the land they wanted, 
and bring up their children in the good old English ways 
and have what kind of religion they liked, with no one to 
trouble them or tell them what they must think. So they 

took ship and crossed the ocean. They were called Pib 

61 









CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH 


grims. A pilgrim is one who wanders from his home, and 
these people were wanderers. 

Why Captain Standish Came.—Captain Standish did 
not have the same belief as the Pilgrims, but he was their 
friend, and went with them. Like Captain John Smith, he 
loved an active life, and wanted to see new things. The 
Pilgrims were glad to have this brave soldier with them, 
for no one could tell what trouble they might have with 
the fierce red men. 





Wash-Day—Indian Corn. 
—Soon after the ship came 
to anchor all the women went 
on shore to wash their clothes, 
which they had not much 
chance to do at sea. It was 
Monday, and Monday has been 
wash-day there ever since. 
Some of the men, led by Captain Standish, started out to 

take a look at the country. At one place they found some 

62 








CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH 


baskets of corn buried in the ground. They had never 
seen Indian corn before, and they were much pleased at 
the beautiful yellow grains, so neatly placed in rows on the 
cob. Some of it they took to plant the next spring, but 
they paid the Indians for it when they found who had 
buried the corn. One of them caught his foot in a deer- 
trap and had his leg jerked up in a comical way. This trap 
was set by the Indians to catch deer, but it caught a man 
that time. 

A Place to Settle.—Away off to the west, about forty 
miles from Cape Cod, a blue hill could be seen from the 
ship, and Captain Standish and some of the men made up 
their minds to go to that place; so they set off in a row¬ 
boat. It was winter now, and so cold that the water which 
splashed up froze on their clothes. But they kept on. At 
length they came to a place with which they were much 
pleased. There was a harbor where ships might lie, and 
some streams of fresh water, and a piece of ground with 
no trees on it. There had been an Indian town at this 
place some years before, but the Indians had all taken sick 
and died, and left their cornfields for the next comers to 
plant. This was a lucky thing for the Pilgrims, and they 
made up their minds that here was the place for them to 
settle. 

Landing at -Plymouth.—The Mayflower was soon 
brought up, and the Pilgrims landed on the 21st of 
December,—the shortest day in the year. Captain Smith 

had stopped there some years before, and named the place 

63 


CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH 


Plymouth (plim'uth) on the map he made. They liked 
this name, for they had sailed from Plymouth in England. 
So the place is still known by that name. They stepped 
on a large stone to reach the shore, and this is now called 
Plymouth Rock. 

A Dreadful Winter.—The winter was cold, and the 
houses they built were poor affairs, and did not keep out 
the winds and snows. Their food was scarce and poor. 
So because of cold winds and thin clothes and bad food 
many of them took sick, and nearly half of them died 
before the spring-time came. Captain Stan dish had come 
to fight, but he was just as ready to take care of the sick, 
and he, and others who kept well, tended the sick, cooked 
for them, and did all the kind things they could. Then, 
with sad hearts, they buried them, and smoothed down 
the graves so that the Indians could not tell how many of 
the white men had died. 

Captain Standish Seeks a Wife.—There is a funny 
story told about Captain Standish. His wife died that 
winter, and he felt so lonely without her that he made up 
his mind to marry again, and picked out a young woman 
named Priscilla Mullins, who he thought would just suit 
him. He was much older than Priscilla, and a rough 
fellow, not at all fit for love-making, and he thought it best 
to ask a young friend of his, named John Alden, to go and 
make love for him. 

John Alden and Priscilla.—This was something that 

John did not like to do, for he loved Priscilla and wanted 

64 


MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 

her for himself. But he did not wish to offend the brave 
captain, so he went to Priscilla’s father and told what he 
had come for. 

“ Captain Standish is a good man enough,” said the 
father, “ but my daughter must choose for herself.” 

Then he called her in and told her what John Alden 
had come to say. Priscilla looked at her father. Then 
she looked at John and said,— 

“ Why don’t you speak for yourself, John ?” 

John did speak for himself, and Priscilla became his 
wife. As for the bold captain, he married another woman, 
and this time we may be sure he spoke for himself and 
did not send a handsome young man to make love for him. 

Make your own story out of— 

1. The ship that came to Cape Cod. 

2. How the Pilgrims were treated in England. 

3. Why they came to America. 

4. How they found a place to settle. 

5. How they lived the first winter. 

6. How Captain Standish got a wife. 

Date to be remembered: The landing of the Pilgrims, 1620. 

Now, can you recall three other important dates ? 

¥¥ 

MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS. 

The Indians Frightened. —For a long time the people 
at Plymouth saw very little of the Indians. They had 

tried to drive off Captain Standish and his men with 

66 


5 


MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 


arrows when they were rowing about in their boat, but 
the men had fired their guns, and the loud noise so scared 
the Indians that they were afraid to come near. 

Indian Visitors.—One day in the spring an Indian 
walked boldly into the village and said, “Welcome, Eng¬ 
lishmen.” It seemed very strange to them to hear an 
Indian speak English. But this man had met English 
fishermen on the coast and learned some words from 
them. The Pilgrims were kind to him, and he soon came 
again, bringing another Indian with him named Squanto 
(squon'toV This man had once lived in the Indian town 
at Plymouth, and was the only one left of the town’s 
people. He had been stolen by sailors and taken to Eng¬ 
land, where he learned the language before he came back. 

Squanto Teaches the English.—Squanto was glad to 
live at his old home, and he taught the white men many 
useful things. He showed them how to hunt and fish, and 
how the Indians planted corn. The way they did was to 
put a fish or two in every hill for manure, and then watch 
the fields awhile at night to keep the wolves from digging 
up the fish. We cannot tell what the English would have 
done if they had not found the seed-corn and got Squanto 
to teach them how to use it. 

A Treaty with the Indians.—Squanto did more than 
this. He brought Massasoit (mas-sa-so'it), the chief o f 
his tribe, to the village. The Pilgrims met him with all 
the show they could make and a loud noise of drums and 

trumpets. This pleased the Indians, and Massasoit was 

66 


MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 

mor© pleased when a red coat and a copper chain were 
sent him. He said he would be a good friend to the white 
men, and they promised to be good friends to him. This 
promise was kept for more than fifty years, as long as Mas- 
sasoit lived. 

The Arrows and the Bullets.—But there was a tribe 
of Indians named Nar-ra-gan'setts who were enemies of 
Massasoit’s tribe, and tried to frighten the English. They 
sent to Plymouth a bundle of 
arrows with a snake’s skin 
wrapped round them. Squanto 
said this meant that they would 
make war on the whites. The 
Pilgrims took the snake-skin 
and filled it with bullets and 
sent it back to the Indians. 

This was as if they had said, 

“ If you shoot your arrows at 

THE INDIANS AND THE SNAKE-SKIN. 

us, we will shoot bullets back 

at you.” When the Narragansetts saw this they were 
afraid to touch the bullets and sent them back. There 
was no war after that, for the Indians knew they could 
not fight bullets with arrows. 

Going- to Church.—The Pilgrims built a fort of logs, 
placed cannon on the roof, and used the lower part of it 
for a church. Every Sunday they marched to church 
carrying their guns and with Captain Standish at their 

head. One man stood on guard outside. They were not 

67 










MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 

going to be caught without arms, for they did not trust the 
red men. 

An Indian Plot.—It was not long before more people 
came from England. These settled at a place they called 
Weymouth (way'muth), about twenty-five miles north of 
Plymouth. These people were different from the Pilgrims. 
The Indians did not like them, and made up their minds to 
kill them. They said to one another that they might as 
well kill those at Plymouth at the same time, and thus get 
rid of all the white men. They forgot that they had Cap¬ 
tain Standish to deal with. 

The Boasting- Chiefs.—Massasoit told the Pilgrims of 
tfieir danger, and Captain Standish at once set out for the 
Indian camp with a few men. The chiefs, when they saw 
lhat there were not many of the whites, tried to frighten 
them. One of them showed the Captain how sharp his 
knife was and made a bold speech about it. Another big 
Indian came up and looked down with scorn on the little 
captain. “ You are a captain, but you are a little man,” he 
said. “ I am not a chief, but I am strong and brave.” 

The Fight in the Cabin.—Captain Standish was a man 
of quick temper, and this made him very angry, but he 
said nothing then. He waited till the next day, when he 
met the chiefs in a log cabin. Here a fight took place, and 
the captain killed the big Indian with his own knife. More 
of the Indians were slain, and all the rest fled in fear to 
the woods. Captain Standish had so scared them that 
they were glad to let the white men alone. 

68 


MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 



the coast, trading with the Indians for furs, which were 

sent to England to be sold. He went to England himself 

borrowed money, and bought goods there for the Pilgrims 

Captain’s Hill.—Captain Standish lived to be seventy 

years old, and to see the country around Plymouth full oi 

69 


What Else Miles Standish Did.—This is not all tha l 
Miles Standish did for the Pilgrims. For a number of year? 
life went hard with them, and more than once they were in 
danger of starving. At one time they had nothing to ea 
but the clams which they found along the coast and what fish 
they could catch. Captain Standish sailed up and down 


massasoit telling governor carver of the plans of the narragansetts. 







ROGER WILLIAMS 


people. He built his home on a high hill just across the 
bay from Plymouth. This place is called Duxbury (dux'- 
ber-ry), and the hill is called Captain’s Hill. On top of it 
is a great shaft of granite, over one hundred feet high, on 
which stands a statue of the bold captain with his face 
turned towards the sea. He was a good man to fight, if 
he did not know how to make love, and the Pilgrims were 
glad enough to have the little captain with them. 

Tell in your own words about— 

1. How Squanto came and taught the English. 

2. The promise Massasoit made. 

3. The story of the arrows and the bullets. 

4. How Captain Standish stopped an Indian plot. 

5. What is meant by Captain’s Hill. 

¥¥ 

ROGER WILLIAMS. 

New England.—You have already been told how Cap¬ 
tain John Smith, after he went home from Jamestown, 
came back and sailed along the coast of the north. He 
named this country New England, for he had come from 
England, and it was the fashion at that time to use old 
names with the word “ new” before them. This was dona 
in the case of New Amsterdam and New York, and it has 
since been done in many other cases. 

The Puritans.—It was not long before other people 

than the Pilgrims came to New England. Many of them- 

70 


ROGER WILLIAMS 


settled at a place where the fine city of Boston now stands. 
These were brought by a man named John Winthrop, who 
became their governor. They were 
called Puritans (pure'e-tans), and had 
left England for the same cause as the 
Pilgrims. That is, they had been ill- 
used because their religion was not the 
same as that of the king and his nobles. 

How the Puritans Acted.—Many 
other places were settled along the 
coast, and in a few years there was a 
large number of people in New England. The most of 
these were Puritans, and they soon began to do the same 
thing that had been done to them. They acted as if that 
country had been made for them and no other people had 
a right there. People of other religions came, like the 
Quakers, but the Puritans tried to drive them out of the 
country, and were very cruel to those who would not go. 

What Roger Williams Said.—Among the people who 
came was a young minister named Roger Williams. He 
was sorry for the Indians, for he did not think they had 
been treated right. He said the land belonged to them, 
not to the king of England, and that the king had no right 
to give away what was not his. He talked much with the 
Indians, and could soon speak to them in their own lan¬ 
guage. They thought him their best friend, and were 
always glad to see him and to help him in any way they 
could. 



JOHN WINTHROP. 


71 



ROGER WILLIAMS 


The People Take Action.—The people of Boston did 
not like this, for they were afraid that it would make the 
king very angry. They tried to make Mr. Williams stop 
talking about the wrongs of the Indians. When they 
found he would not do so, they sent an officer to arrest 
him and put him on board ship. They were going to send 
him back to England, for they did not want any men with 
them who chose to think anything wrong which they said 
was right. 

An Escape into the Woods.—The officer did not find 
Roger Williams. He had been told what was to be done 
with him, so he left his house and went into the woods 
where he could not be found. In those days the woods 
were not far from any man’s house, and they had plenty 
of hiding-places. He made up his mind to go to the old 
Indian chief Massasoit, who was his friend, and had been 
the friend of the white men ever since he made the treaty 
of peace with the Pilgrims. 

The Forest in Winter.—Poor Roger Williams had a 
long way to go. Massasoit lived about eighty miles to the 
south. It would not have been so bad in summer-time, for 
then we all love to wander in the woods among the leaves 
and flowers. But it was now winter, and the ground was 

covered with snow. There were no leaves on the trees. 

> * • 

and their branches rattled like dry sticks in the cold wind. 
He took a small supply of food, and also a hatchet to chop 
wood for his fires, and a flint and steel. In those days 
there were no matches, and men had to strike a spark with 


ROGER WILLIAMS 


a flint and steel to start a fire. This was often very hard to 
do. He had also a little pocket-compass, so that he could 
find his way in the thick woods, for the compass showed 
him which way was north and 
which was south. 

A Dreary Journey.—On and 
on went the poor young man, 
wading through the snow and 
shivering in the cold winds. At 
night he would scrape together 
some bits of dry wood and make 
a fire with his flint and steel. 

Then he would cut twigs from 
some of the trees to make him 
a bed on the damp ground, or 
he might creep into a hollow 
tree. It was a cold and dreary 
journey that he made, and he was a very glad man when 
he came to the cabin of the good chief. 

The Coming* of Spring.—Massasoit took him in and fed 
and warmed him, for he was cold and hungry. He kept 
him till the winter was over, for he loved the man who had 
been the friend of the red men. When the spring came 
and the air grew warm some of his white friends came to 
find Mr. Williams, and they got into a canoe and paddled 
down-stream. This the good chief told them to do. 

A Good Stopping-Place.—All the Indians knew Mr. 

Williams, and as he paddled along some of them who stood 

73 



ROGER WILLIAMS BANISHED. 









ROGER WILLIAMS 


on the river-side called out, “ What cheer ?” That was 
their way of saying, “ How do you do ?” Mr. Williams 
went on shore and had a talk with them, and told them 
how he had been driven from his home and was seeking a 
place to build a new home. They told him to go a little 
farther down, and he would find a good place to build, and 
a fine spring of water. So he and his friends paddled on 
till they reached the spot, which they liked very well in¬ 
deed. Mr. Williams called it Prov'i-dence, for he said a 
good Providence had helped him. To-day the large city 
of Providence stands there. 

Religious Liberty.—It was not only his love for the 
Indians that made the people of Boston dislike Roger 
Williams. He loved white men as well as Indians, and 
said that all men had a right to worship God in the way 
they thought the best. This was not what the Puritans 
taught, and they did not want a man like Roger Williams 
among them. After he and his friends had built them¬ 
selves houses, they sent out word that all men, no matter 
what they believed, could have a home in Providence. 
•Jews might come as well as Christians, and people who 
went to no church at all could live there in peace. It was 
the first place in the world where people had full liberty of 
thought, and for this Roger Williams has ever since been 
praised, for in those days there was not much liberty of 
any kind. 

Rhode Island.—The colony started by the young min¬ 
ister in time grew to be a State of the American Union, 

74 


ROGER WILLIAMS 


and is known under the name of Rhode Island. It is the 
smallest of the States, but has more people than some much 


larger 


ones, and a number 
of busy cities where there 
are great factories and use¬ 
ful things of many kinds 



NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND. 


are made. From it religious liberty has spread over the 
whole country. 

Tell what you know about— 

1. The Puritans and how they acted. 

2 . Why they did not like Roger Williams. 

3. The story of the journey through the woods. 

4 . How the colony of Rhode Island was founded. 

75 













































KING PHILIP 


KING PHILIP. 

The Sons of Massasoit.—We are sure our young readers 
have not forgotten who Massasoit was. He was the good 
friend of the Pilgrims and of Roger Williams, and for 
many years he did his best to keep peace between the 
white and the red men. But at length he died, as all 
men, good and bad, must. He left two sons, who did not 
feel kindly towards the whites. They saw that these 
people were going out all over the country and taking the 
land of the Indians as if it were their own. One day a 
chief asked a white man who came to see him to sit down 
with him on a log. Then he kept asking him to move 
along, until he came to the end of the log. 

“ Move farther,” said the Indian. 

“ I cannot,” said the white man. “ I am at the end of 
the log now.” 

“That is the way it is with us,” said the chief. “You 
have asked us to move, and to move again, until we are as 
far as we can go, and now you ask us to move farther still.” 

The Young Chief Dies.—One of the sons of Massasoit 
was named Al-ex-an'der by the whites. The other was 
named Philip. Alexander became chief after his father 
died. The people of Plymouth were told that he was try¬ 
ing to get the Indians to make war on the whites; so they 
sent some soldiers, who brought him to Plymouth. The 
proud young chief felt very badly at being treated in this 

way. He took sick, and died soon after he got back home. 

76 


KING PHILIP 


His wife said the white men had given him poison, and this 
the Indians believed. 

An Indian King-.—Philip now became chief. He called 
himself King Philip, and no doubt fancied himself as great 
a man as the king of England, though he had only a bark 
hut to live in and his finest dress was a red blanket. For 
a crown he wore a circlet with ornaments made of round 
bits of shell with holes bored in them. The Indians called 
these wampum, and used them for money. 

What Philip Thoug-ht.—Philip was sure that the white 
men had killed his brother, and was afraid they might kill 
him next. And they had taken so much land from the 
tribe that there was very little left. He saw that one thing 
or another would soon take place. The Indians must 
drive out the whites, or the whites would drive out the 
Indians. The red men were no longer afraid of bullets. 
They now had guns of their own and knew how to use 
them. So Philip made up his mind to fight the white men 
and try to drive them out of the country. 

Indian Warfare.—This was not the first time the In¬ 
dians had fought. There had been a war in Con-nec'ti- 
cut soon after the whites came there, and nearly a whole 
tribe of Indians had lost their lives. But now there was 
to be a great and cruel war> which would not end until 
many white men had been slain and many homes burned. 
Philip told the Indians to fight, and they began shooting at 
the white people from behind rocks and trees, and men 

were killed as they went quietly along the roads. 

77 


KING PHILIP 


House-Burning. —Soon the Indians began to attack the 
villages of the whites. They would creep up in the night, 

set fire to the houses, 
shoot the men when they 
ran out of their burning 
homes, and carry off the 
women and children if 
they could catch them. 
There were many terri¬ 
ble fights. At one place 
the people all flocked into a strong building called a block¬ 
house. The Indians tried to set fire to this, by shooting 
arrows with blazing rags on their points. In this way the 
roof was set on fire; but the men ran up and put out the 
fire. Then the Indians pushed a cart full of blazing hay 
against the house. Just as it caught fire and began to 
burn there came a shower of rain, and the fire was again 
put out. Soon after some white soldiers came, and the 
Indians fled into the woods. 

The Indians Driven Back.—There were many other 
wonderful escapes, but the war kept on for a long time 
and numbers of the poor settlers lost their lives. But 
though the Indians were bold and daring the white men 
knew more about war, and after a while they began to 
drive the Indians back. One of their forts was taken and 
the village inside was set on fire, so that there was terrible 
loss of life. 

Captain Church and King Philip.—There was a great 

38 



A BLOCK-HOUSE. 











KING PHILIP 


fighter among the whites named Captain Church, who did 
much to bring the war to an end. He followed King Philip 
and his men from place to place, and took many of them 
prisoners. Among these were the wife and the little boy 
of the Indian king. When Philip heard of this he was 
very sad. “ It breaks my heart,” he said; “ now I am 
ready to die.” 

The End of the War.—He did not live long after that. 
Captain Church hunted him from one hiding-place to 



DEATH OF KING FHILIK 


another. At length he came back to his old home at 
Mount Hope, in Rhode Island, the place where Massasoit 
lived when Roger Williams came to him through the 
woods. Here King Philip was shot, and the war was at 

79 







THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


an end. It had lasted for more than a year, and many on 
both sides had been killed. But the Indians never again 
tried to fight the whites in that part of the country. 

Tell in vour own words— 

•/ 

1. What you know about the sons of Massasoit. 

2. What Philip tried to do, 

3. The story of the war. 

4. What Captain Church did. 

THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER. 

The Regicides.—Much more might be said about New 
England, for many things took place there worth the tell¬ 
ing. One of these stories is that of the regicides (rej'e- 
sides). A regicide is a man who has helped to put a king 
to death. Charles I., king of England, was put to death 
by the people, and the judges who sentenced him to death 
were called by this name. When Charles II. became king 
he tried to arrest and punish all those judges, but two of 
them, named Goffe and Whalley, got safely out of England 
and made their way to America, where they were hidden 
by their friends. 

Pursuit and Escape.—The governors in America tried 
to seize these two men and send them back to England, 
and had them hunted like wild beasts, so that they often 
had to flee for their lives. For a long time they lived in a 
cave in the rocks, and their friends brought them food. 

At one time, when they were closely pursued, they hid 

80 


THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


under a bridge, and heard their enemies ride over their 
heads. Then they slipped out and got back to their hiding- 
place. They were never caught, for many of the people 
helped to hide them and saw that they had food to eat. 

The Fig-ht at Hadley.—One of these men lived for a 
long time in the house of a minister in the town of Hadley. 



None of the people knew he was there, for a secret room 
had been built for him, and he never went out except when 
all the people were in bed. This was during the Indian 
war with King Philip, and one day the Indians came yelling 
into the streets. All at once an old man, with a long white 
beard was seen in the street and put himself at the head 
of the people and helped them to drive the Indians away. 

Then he was lost to sight as suddenly as he had come. 

6 81 































I 


THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


The people thought he was an angel sent to their help ; but 
it was General Goffe, the regicide, who had gone back to 
his hiding-place. 

What a Charter is.—Now, here is a good story of a 
charter. But it is best to begin by telling what a charter 
is. It is a paper given by a ruler to a people, in which he 
grants them the right to do certain things or to hold certain 
powers. The kings of England gave charters to all the 
colonies in America. Under some of these the people 
were free to govern themselves and to do almost as they 
pleased, while others did not give them so much power. 

The Connecticut Charter.—The best of these charters 

• 

was the one given by Charles II. to the colony of Con-nec'- 
ti-cut. The people of this colony thought a great deal of 
their charter, and were very glad to be given the right to 
govern themselves in their own way. But Charles II. died, 
and his brother, James II., became king, and soon there 
was a change. The new king was a tyrant. That is, he 
wanted to make all the laws himself and to take from the 
people all their rights. He tried to do this both in England 
and America. He thought the people of Connecticut had 
too much liberty, and he sent orders to take from them the 
charter of which they were so proud. 

Governor Andros Comes to Hartford.-—Andros, the 
king’s governor, came from Boston to Hartford, in Connec¬ 
ticut, and told the people that they must give him their 
charter, in the king’s name. The poor colonists did not 

know what to do. They hated to give it up, but the king 

82 


THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


was master and they were afraid to disobey, for he might 
send soldiers to punish them. But for all that, Governor 
Andros had to go back to Boston without the charter, and 
this is how it came about. 

The Talk Over the Charter.—The governor was asked 
to come into the state-house to discuss the question, and 
there he sat in the chair of state, with the members of the 
assembly in their chairs on the floor. The charter lay on 
the table between them, and they talked at a great rate, 
for some of the members thought they could get him to 
leave them their charter. This he would not do. He had 
the orders of the king and must obey them. 

The Lights Put Out.—In those days tallow candles were 
the only lights people used. A number of these lit up the 
room,—but not very brightly, we may be sure of that. 
Suddenly, while they were talking, all the lights were 
put out, and everybody was left in the dark. If this had 
been in our time a dozen matches would at once have been 
lit. But in those days it took time to make a light, for 
there was no such thing as a match, and the old flint and 
steel had to be used. So there was hurrying about and 
loud calling and snapping of flint on steel, and it took some 
time before the candles could be lighted again. Then the 
governor opened his eyes very wide, for he saw that the 
charter was gone. 

The Charter Taken.—Some one had taken the charter 
from the table while the lights were out, and he could not 

get it back, though he swore a great deal, as men did in 

83 


THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


those days. Nobody knew where it had been taken, and 
years passed before it was seen again. It was not until 
after James II. was driven from the throne and a new king 
took his place that the charter was brought back. All 
that time it had lain in its case in a hollow tree in the main 
street of Hartford, where nobody thought of looking for it. 

The Chartei Oak.—It is said that the lights were put out 
by a bold young soldier named Captain Wadsworth, who 
threw his cloak over them. Then he snatched up the 

charter from the table 
and got quickly out of 
the hall by a door or a 
• window. He lost no 
time, but ran as fast as 
he could to the old oak- 
tree with the hole in its 
side which stood in the 
main street of the town. 
The case which held 
the charter was pushed 
into the hole and fell to 
the bottom of the hol¬ 
low tree, and there it 
lay until it was safe to 
bring it out again. The 
old tree was long known as the Charter Oak, and was 
loved and cherished by all the people as long as it stood. 
Now nothing but some of its woud is left. 



84 




THE REGICIDES AND THE CHARTER 


Governor Fletcher and the Militia.—A bold man in¬ 
deed was Captain Wadsworth. Some years after the 
charter was brought back to the state-house another gov¬ 
ernor, named Fletcher, came from New York to take com¬ 
mand of the militia* of Connecticut. But the people did 
not want any stranger to have power over them, and Cap¬ 
tain Wadsworth made up his mind that this governor 
should not make out any better than Governor Andros had 
done. 

The Roll of the Drums.—Governor Fletcher called out 
the militia, and began to read to them the paper which he 
said gave him the right to command. But the minute he 
began to read Captain Wadsworth ordered the drummers 
to beat their drums, and there was such a rattle and roll 
that not a word could be heard. 

“Silence!” cried Fletcher. The drums stopped their 
noise, and he began to read again. 

“ Drum !” cried Wadsworth, and the noise was louder 
than ever. 

“ Silence!” shouted Fletcher, who was now very red in 
the face. 

“ Drum, I say!” cried the captain. Then he turned to 
Fletcher and said, laying his hand on his sword, “ If you 
interrupt me again I will make the sun shine through you 
in a minute.” 

* Militia: The people who are drilled to act as soldiers if they 
should be needed. They are the same as the citizen soldiers or 
National Guard of to-day. 


35 



LORD BALTIMORE 


So the governor gave it up and went back to New York. 
He must have thought that Connecticut was not a good 
place for royal governors. 

Tell as well as you can— 

1. What is meant by the regicides. 

2 . How they were hidden from their enemies. 

3. What happened in Hadley. 

Also fell in your own words— 

4. What a charter is. 

5. How the Connecticut charter was saved. 

6. How Governor Fletcher was sent back 


LORD BALTIMORE. 

How the Catholics were Treated.—The Pilgrims and 
the Puritans were not the only people in England who 
were ill-used on account of their religion. The Catholics 
—those who were members of the Church of Rome— 
were also treated with great cruelty. The law said that 
they must attend the Church of England. If they did not 
do so they were made to pay a large sum of money, equal 
to several hundred dollars, or were sent to prison. This 
was very unjust, and one of the English Catholics, a noble¬ 
man named Lord Baltimore, asked the king for a tract of 
land in America where he and his friends might dwell in 
peace. 

The Grant to Lord Baltimore.—The king was a friend 

86 


LORD BALTIMORE 


of Lord Baltimore, and gave him a large tract just north 
of Virginia. It was bounded on th» south by the Po-to'- 
mac River, which runs down from 
the mountains and past the city of 
Washington. The king called this 
country Maryland, after his wife, 

Queen Mary, who was a Catholic. 

All Lord Baltimore was to pay for it 
was two Indian arrows every year, 
and, if he found any gold or silver, 

the king Was to have a Share Of that, (Second) Lord Baltimore. 

too. These arrows were of no use to the king, but they 
were asked for as a sort of rent. They showed that the 
king had not given up all his rights in Maryland. 

The Land Bought from the Indians.—It was in the 
year 1634 that the people sent by Lord Baltimore came 
to Maryland. When the ship reached the shore the 
Indians ran up to see who these white strangers were. 
There was a small Indian town where they stopped, but 
the red men were about to leave it, so as to get away from 
some savage tribes farther north. When the white men 
offered to buy their land, and to pay for it with hatchets, 
knives, and beads, they were very glad to sell. They did 
more than that. They stayed long enough to show the new¬ 
comers how to hunt in the woods and to plant corn. And 
their women taught the white women how to make hominy 
from their corn and how to bake johnny-cakes. 

Religious Liberty.—Soon there was built a village which 

87 





LORD BALT1MOKE 


was named St. Mary’s, and a church was started in a large 
Indian wigwam, or bark house. I have told you that the 
Puritans would not let anybody else dwell in peace in their 
settlement. 

The Catho¬ 
lics did not 
act in that 
way. Lord 
Baltimore 
said that 

every Christian who came to 
Maryland should have the 
right to worship God in his 
own manner. He was the first 
to offer what is called religious 
liberty, for Roger Williams did 
not do the same until a few 
years afterwards. But Lord 
Baltimore said Christians only. 

Roger Williams said that all people should be free to think 
and worship. 

The Catholics Ill-Treated.—The people who soon began 
to come to Maryland did not know what religious liberty 
meant. The Catholics had asked them to come, but 
when a number of Puritans and others got there they 
tried to take the land from Lord Baltimore, and said that the 
Catholics should not have the right to worship in their own 

churches. So religious liberty did not last long in Maryland. 

88 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES. 


i 








































LORD BALTIMORE 


Lord Baltimore Loses his Province.—For many years 
there was trouble in Maryland, and much fighting went on. 
The province was taken away from Lord Baltimore,—not the 
first Lord Baltimore, but his son. When a new king, named 
King William, came to the throne, he claimed Maryland as 
his own, and said that the Catholics should not have a church 
and should not worship God in their own way in Maryland. 

A Protestant Lord.—After many years there was a 
young Lord Baltimore who changed from Catholic to Prot¬ 
estant and joined the Church of England. The king then 
gave him back the province of Maryland. This was in 1715. 
It was not taken away again until 1776, when the people of 
America set themselves free from any masters on the other 
side of the ocean. The Catholics of Maryland were treated 
very unjustly. They had given religious liberty to others 
and their own liberty to worship was taken away. 

Progress in Maryland.—Tobacco was planted in Mary¬ 
land, slaves were kept there, and all went well with the 
people for many years. Towns were built, one of them 
being named Baltimore, in honor of Lord Baltimore. 
This is now a large and rich city. But St. Mary’s, the 
first town built, has gone, and there is hardly a mark to¬ 
day to show where it once stood. 

Tell— 

1. How the Catholics were treated in England. 

2. What Lord Baltimore did. 

3. What liberty was given in Maryland. 

4 How the Catholics were treated there 

89 


WILLIAM PENN 


WILLIAM PENN. 

The Church of England.—Do any of our young readers 
know what is meant by the Church of England ? At any 
rate, you must know that there are several forms of the 
Christian religion, known by various names. The people 
who belong to these do not agree in all their beliefs and 
ideas. In some of them the ministers are paid by the 
government, and in some they are not. The Church of 
England is the form of religion which is kept up or paid 
for by the English government. 

How Others were Treated.—All forms of religion go 
on side by side in England to-day, and no one meddles 
with them, though only one has the aid of the govern¬ 
ment. But a few hundred years ago all people who did 
not attend the Church of England, but had their own ideas 
about religion, were treated as if they were thieves or very 
bad people. Some of them were kept in jail for years. 
Some were beaten with whips. Some were put in the 
stocks, to be called ugly names and have mud thrown at 
them by the mob. 

Why they were Glad to Get to America.—We can 
well see why men like these were glad to get to America, 
where they could worship God in their own way in peace. 
The Pilgrims who came to Plymouth were one class of 
them. The Puritans who settled Boston were another. 
The Catholics who came to Maryland were a third. There 

was one more class of these people who lived a very sad 

90 


WILLIAM PENN 


life in England. These called themselves Friends, but 
the people called them Quakers, and some of their leaders 
spent much of their time in jail, not because they had 
done wrong, but because they did not agree with others in 
their religious beliefs. 

The Friends, or Quakers.—The Friends were mostly 
poor working people, whom the great lords looked upon as 
the very scum of the earth. But they were not all of this 
kind, for one of them was the son of a great ad'mi-ral, 
who had fought for England upon the seas. This did not 
keep his son from being sent to jail and ill-treated in other 
ways. 

William Penn and his Father.—This young man’s 
name was William Penn. When he joined the poor and 
humble Quakers his father was 
so angry that he turned him 
out-of-doors into the street. 

The poor lad would have been 
in a bad way, indeed, if his 
mother had not sent him mo¬ 
ney. After a while his father 
let him come home again, but 
would not see him, for he was 
angry still. As happens with 
many a boy in our own days, his mother was his best 

friend. 

William Penn’s Plan.—At length Admiral Penn died, 

and his son became the head of the house. The pious 

91 



WILLIAM PENN. 




WILLIAM PENN 


young man was tired of being sent to jail and of seeing 
his friends in jail for no fault of theirs. He thought it 
would be wise to do as the Pilgrims and Puritans had 
done. There was plenty of land in America, where a 
home might be found for the poor Friends in which they 
could live happily and worship God in the way that they 
thought right. 

The King’s Debt.—Now, it seems that the king of Eng¬ 
land had owed a large sum of money to Admiral Penn, 
which he now owed to his son. But the king was one of 
the kind of people who spend money so fast that they can¬ 
not pay their debts, and William Penn was not likely to 
get his money soon. He told the' king of a way in which 
he could get rid of his debt easily. There was land 
beyond the sea which had cost him nothing and which he 
could give away, and Penn asked for a tract of this land 
which lay on the west side of the Delaware River. If the 
king would grant him this he would accept it in full pay¬ 
ment of the debt. 

The King Pays his Debt.—King Charles was glad to 
pay his debts in this easy way. He did not think the land 
of much value, for he gave Penn a tract nearly as large as 
the whole of England. All William Penn had to pay the 
king for this was two beaver-skins every year and one-fifth 
of all the gold and silver that should be mined. No gold 
or silver was found, so the king got nothing but his beaver- 
skins. King Charles named the country Penn-svl-va'ni-a, 
which means Penn’s Woods. 


WILLIAM PENN AND HIS PROVINCE 



PENN’S LANDING. 

States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and ends in the 
wide body of water known as Delaware Bay P On its 
banks stands the great city of Phil-a-del'phi-a, in which 

more than a million people live, and in which are thou* 

93 


Tell what you can about— 

1. The Church of England. 

2. Why so many people came to America. 

3. Who was William Penn. 

4. Why did he want land in America. 

5. How the king paid his debt. 

¥¥ 

WILLIAM PENN AND HIS PROVINCE. 

The Delaware River.— What do any of you know 
about the Del'a-ware River? Have you ever seen this 
fine, broad stream that flows for many miles between the 





































WILLIAM PENN AND HIS PROVINCE 


sands of busy mills and workshops and stores. This 
mighty city we owe to William Penn. It is what came 
from the way in which the king paid his debt. 

A New City.—When William Penn came over the ocean 
to the new land which the king had given him, he sailed for 
many miles up Delaware Bay and River till he came to a 
place which had been chosen for a city. The ship he came 
in had the pretty name of the Welcome, and to the city he 
gave the name of Philadelphia, which means Brotherly 
Love. He hoped that all its people would act like brothers. 
We are sorry to say that they have not all acted that way, 
and do not act that way to-day. Do you think there is as 
much brotherly love as there should be in any of the cities 
of the world ? 

Houses and Streets.—The first people who came dug 
holes in the river bank, and spent the winter in J hese holes 
like so many mice. No doubt they found it cold there, 
though they had plenty of wood to burn. As soon as 
Penn came, in the year 1682, houses were built, and streets 
were cut through the woods, and a large city was laid out 
on paper. Many trees were cut down, but their names 
were kept, for these were given to the streets. Thus it is 
that many of the streets of Philadelphia still bear the names 
of trees, such as Chestnut, Walnut, Pine, Locust, and so on. 

The Rights of the Indians.—While all this was taking 
place, the Indians looked on in wonder. They had their 
homes under these trees and had hunted deer where many 

of the great buildings of the city now stand. We may well 

94 


WILLIAM PENN AND HIS PROVINCE 


think that they did not like this coming of the white men to 
take their lands. They did not know what right a king on 
the other side of the sea had to give away what he nevel 
owned and what had always belonged to them and theif 
fathers before them. 

What William Penn Thought.— William Penn thought 
the same thing. He knew very well that King Charles did 
not own this land, and had no right to give away the 
homes of the red men. Like a good Friend, he wished to 
be just to the Indians and live in peace with them. So he 
called them together to 
have a talk and to pay 
them for the land which 
he knew belonged to 
them and not to the 
English king. 

The Elm-Tree. —It 
was a fine scene when 
Penn and the Indians 
came together under a 
great elm-tree on the 
river side. That elm- 
tree stood there for more than a hundred years afterwards. 
When the British army was in Philadelphia, in the Rev-o- 
lu'tion-a-ry * War, the generals let the soldiers cut down 

* Revolutionary. Changing a form of government in a sudden 
manner. The Revolution was the war by which this country gained 
its freedom from England. 



PENN TREATY MONUMENT. 


95 






















WILLIAM PENN AND HIS PROVINCE 

trees for fire-wood, but would not let them touch that tree. 
They had some feeling for the noble elm, under whose shade 
Penn’s treaty with the Indians had been made. The tree is 
gone now, and a stone mon'u-ment marks its place. 

Penn the Indian’s Friend.—We do not know just what 
took place at that meeting, but we know that Penn paid 
the Indians for their land and became their firm friend. 
He was a young man then and joined the Indians in their 
sports. Once when he saw them running and jumping, he 
took part and showed them that he could jump farther 
than any of them. This made them think more of him 
than ever. 

Friends and Indians. —From that time the Friends and 
the Indians lived in peace. No Friend ever robbed or hurt 
an Indian, and it is said that no Indian ever hurt one he 
knew to be a Friend. They dwelt together for many years 
in peace. Other people came to Pennsylvania and did 
wrong to the Indians, but they loved William Penn and his 
people and looked on them as friends and brothers. 

Penn and his Province.—William Penn soon went back 
to England, but people kept coming to the new city, and 
trees were cut down, and streets laid out, and houses built, 
until it grew to be the largest city in America. But poor 
William Penn got little good out of his great province on 
the Delaware. He spent a great deal of money on it, but 
very little was given him back, and at last he was put in 
prison for debt, as he had been years before for his religion. 

The Gift of the Red Men.—When William Penn died 

96 


JAMES OGLETHORPE 


he left the province out of which he had got so little good 
to his sons. The Indians sent some beautiful furs to his 
widow in memory of their great and good brother. These, 



EARLY PHILADELPHIA. 


they said, were to make her a cloak, “ to protect her while 
she was passing without her guide through the thorny 
wil'der-ness of life.” 

Tell what yon know— 

1. About the province and city of William Penn. 

2. How the city was laid out. 

3. Penn’s treaty with the Indians. 

4. How the Indians and the Friends lived together. 

5. William Penn’s later life. 

Date to remember : The founding of Philadelphia, 1682. 

¥¥ 

•JAMES OGLETHORPE. 

Modern Freedom.— All our young readers may well be 
glad that they live in this age of the world. Every man in 
our country to-day is free to think as he pleases; and to 
act as he pleases, too, if he does not break the laws. And 

97 


7 






































JAMES OGLETHORPE 


the laws are much more just and much less cruel than they 
were one or two hundred years ago. 

How Debtors were Treated.—We have seen how un¬ 
just the old-time laws were in regard to religion. They 
were quite as unjust in other ways. Men who owed money 
to others could be treated with great cruelty. Debtors, or 
people who owed money, could be put in prison, and kept 
there until their debts were paid. The prisons were very 
dirty, and were full of poor men, who had no way to earn 
the money to pay their debts and were not let out to work. 
Many of them took sick and died, and some were starved 
to death by cruel jailers, who would not give them food to 
eat if they had no money to pay for it. 

What Oglethorpe Pound.—One man who died in this 
way was a friend of General James Oglethorpe (O'gel-thorp), 
a brave English soldier. When he learned that his friend 

was dead, he went to the prisons in 
which debtors were kept, and what 
he saw there made him sick at heart. 
Many of these poor men were honest 
and willing to work if they could, but 
they had no chance while in prison. 

Oglethorpe’s Plan.—General Ogle¬ 
thorpe now went to the king, and 
asked him for a grant of land in 
America. He wished to take these 
poor fellows out of jail and go with them across the ocean 

to a place where they could work and earn the means of 

98 



JAMES OGLETHORPE. 


JAMES OGLETHORPE 


living. He was sure they would soon do as well as other 
men. It was far better to take them to the New World 
than to let them die in prison. 

Where Georgia Lies.—The king gave him what he 
asked for. The land given him is now known as Georgia. 

After Vir¬ 
ginia had 
been set¬ 
tled, other 
settlers 
went far¬ 
ther south, 
to what are 
now called 



THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA. 


North and South Car-o-li'na, 
and formed colonies there. 
Still farther south lay Flor¬ 
ida, where the Spaniards 
had settled. The land that 
Oglethorpe asked for lay 
He named it Georgia (jor'- 


between Carolina and Florida, 
je-ah), after King George of England. 

Building New Homes.—It was in the year 1733 that 
General Oglethorpe reached his new province. He brought 
many of the poor debtors with him, and landed with them 
on the banks of a fine river, where he laid out a town 
which he named Sa-van'nah. The debtors soon showed 

that all they wanted was a chance to work and earn their 

yy 




























JAMES OGLETHORPE 


living. They started at once to cut down trees, build 
houses, and plant fields, and a very pretty town soon 
began to show itself. 

Buying 1 the Land—Growth of the Colony.—General 
Oglethorpe had no trouble with the Indians, for he bought 
the land he needed. They had plenty of it and were 



BUYING THE LAND FROM THE INDIANS. 


quite willing to sell. Some Germans soon came over and 
settled in the country, and people came from other parts 
of Europe. Some of them planted corn; others tried to 
make silk; but in time cotton became the chief crop. 

War with the Spaniards.—The Spaniards in Florida 
said that this land belonged to them and that the English 

had no right there. They tried to drive them out, and this 

100 






















THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


brought on war. General Oglethorpe, I have said, was 
a soldier and was not afraid of the Spaniards. He fought 
them and drove them back, and they soon found that they 
had better let the English alone. 

What Oglethorpe Lived to See.—The kind-hearted 
general lived to be a very old man. He did not die until 
long after the Revolution, when Georgia was a State and 
was filling up fast with people. The little town which he 
had started on the Savannah River was then a fine city, 
with broad streets planted with shade trees and handsome 
parks. The old man, no doubt, took great pride in this 
grand city and the large State which owed their start to 
him. 

Tell about— 

1 The debtors’ prisons. 

2. What Oglethorpe wished to do. 

3. Where Georgia lies. 

4. How it was settled. 

5. What Oglethorpe lived to see. 

Date to remember: Settlement of Georgia, 1733. 

THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH. 

A Look Backward.—It is well, when one has gone a 
long way over strange ground, to go back and look over the 
ground again, so as to fix it in the mind. That is what we 
have done, we have travelled far over strange ground, and 
it may be well to go back a little. From the time Columbus 

crossed the ocean to the New World to tlm time that Ogle- 

101 


THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


thorpe brought the poor debtors from the English prisons 
to Georgia more than two hundred years had passed away, 
and in that time much more took place than we have been 
able to tell. 

The Country and its People.— In those two hundred 
years the Spaniards had spread far over Mexico and South 
America, and the French over Canada and along the Mis¬ 
sissippi River. But the English had done much less. 
They had started thirteen colonies along the coast between 
Maine and Florida, but they had not gone far from the 
water’s edge. All the mountain country and all the broad 
plains of the west were still the homes of the red men. 

They lived in great 
forests, where the 
Indian camp-fires 
blazed under the 
trees, and where the 
red men hunted the 
deer in the woods 









INDIANS BUILDING A CANOE. 


and fished in the flowing streams. 


You have read much 
about the white men; now let us learn something about 
the first owners of the soil, the red Indians. 

The Indians.—In all parts of the country where the 
white men had landed they had found people with skin of 
the color of copper and with black hair and eyes. In the 
north these people were wild and savage and lived mostly 
by hunting. They had villages, it is true, with houses of 

bark, some of them quite large. But most of the people 

v 102 






THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


Jived in little tents covered with skins or bark, which they 
called wig'warns. 

Open-Air Life. —The Indians were not much like us in 
one way. They did not care to stay in their houses, ex¬ 



open air. Now they AN INDIAN village scene. 


hunted in the forest, now fished in the streams, now 
smoked their pipes in front of their huts. The great woods 
spread everywhere, and they loved to wander under the 
trees or to paddle their light canoes down the streams. 

Clothing* and Weapons.— For clothes they wore the 
skins of wild animals, and they painted their faces and 
stuck feathers in their hair, and tried to make themselves 
look as ugly and fierce as they could. They seemed to 
think they could scare their enemies by ugly faces. They 

had no guns, but used bows and arrows and stone hatchets, 

103 














THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


which they called tom'a-hawks. But after the white men 
came to America the Indians got guns and iron hatchets, 
and wore blankets instead of skins. They traded the furs 
of foxes and other animals for these things. 

Cruel Customs.—The red men were very fond of fight¬ 
ing. You have been told how they fought with the whites. 
They fought as much with each other before the white 
men came. One tribe or body of them would fight with 
another, and they were very cruel to those they took 
pris'o-ner in battle, for they would tie them to a tree 
and burn them to death. All the hair was shaved off 
their heads except one lock, called the scalp-lock. When 
one of them was killed in battle this lock was used to pull 
off his scalp, or the skin of his head. All this was very 
cruel and savage, and the Indians in some ways were as 
bad as the wolves of the wild wood. 

Work of the Women.—The men 
would do nothing but hunt and fight, 
or make stone pipes and bark canoes. 
At home the women had to do all 
the work, such as cooking and other 
house duties, and building the wig¬ 
wams. They had also to plant and 
hoe the corn and gather it when ripe. 

INDIAN WOMAN WEAVING. 

When they wished to make a fire they 
would rub two dry sticks together until they grew so hot as 
to begin to burn. This was hard work, and we may be sure 
they did not let their fires go out if they could help it. 

104 









THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


Food and Tobacco.—For food they had corn and beans 
and squashes and such plants, but they lived mostly on the 
fish they caught and the game they killed in the forests. 
They were very fond of smoking tobacco, and soon taught 
the white men how to smoke the tobacco-leaf. In return, 
the white men taught them to drink whiskey, which was a 
much worse gift than tobacco. 

The Tribe and the Totem.—A tribe of Indians was 
made up of many men and women, who lived in one place 
and spoke the same language. Each tribe was made up of 
small groups, which we call clans. Every clan had some 
animal which it called its totem, such as the wolf, the bear, 
or the tortoise. The Indian was proud of the totem of his 
clan, and wore its figure tattooed on 
his breast; that is, it was picked into 
the skin with needles. Each clan 
had its sachem, or peace-chief. They 
also had war-chiefs, who led them 
to battle. These chiefs were their 
rulers, and made such laws as they 
had. 

Following the Trail.—The Indians 
had wonderful skill in the forests. 

They could follow their enemies or 
the beasts of the woods for miles by the smallest marks. 
A broken stick, a piece of torn moss, or a footprint that 
we could not see at all was like the page of a book to their 
eyes. They read the trees and the ground as we read our 

105 



INDIAN CHIEF. 




THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH 


books, and a track which would mean nothing to us was 
plain and full of meaning to them. 

Doctors and Dances.— The Indians had what they 
called “ medicine-men.” These were their doctors as well 
as their priests. They tried to cure the sick by magic, and 
used charms and spells in all they did. Very likely they 
killed as many as they cured. There were many Indian 
dances. The war-dance took place round a post, which 
they struck with their knives and hatchets as they danced, 
as though it was something they could hurt. 

Shell Beads.— For money they used what they called 
wam'pum. This was made of round pieces of sea-shells, 
in which they bored holes so that they could run strings 
through them. They used these strings of shell beads for 



ornaments. Wampum was made into belts, with figures 
of various kinds on them. These all meant something, and 
the Indians could read them and tell what they stood for. 

1. Tell where the Spanish, French, and English settled. 

2. Where the Indians lived. 

3. Tell about the Indian houses, their clothes, their war-customs, 
their work. 

4. About their food, their totems, following the trail, doctors, 
dances, and wampum. 


106 
























































































THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST 


THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST. 

Farming Tribes.—The Indians who lived in the South, 
near the Gulf of Mexico, were not so wild and savage as 
those of the North. They hunted and fished as did the 
Indians of the North, but they did more farming, and had 
large, well-built towns or villages. Corn, pumpkins, beans, 
and other plants were grown, and much of the food was 
kept in large buildings for the use of all the tribe. 

Sun-Worshippers.—Some of the tribes had large temples 
and many priests, and kept feast- and fast-days. They 
looked on the sun as a god, and had a fire always burn¬ 
ing in the temple. They were afraid of some great evil if 
this sacred fire should go out, and watched it day and 
night. They had a great chief, who ruled over the whole 
tribe, a head war-chief, a high-priest, and other leaders. 

The Green-Corn Festival.—Some of their holidays were 
kept in great state. The Creek Indians had their green- 
corn festival in the autumn, and it was very beautiful. 
The high-priest, dressed in pure white, sat on a white seat 
and fanned the sacred fire with the wing of a snow-white 
swan. The first ripe ears of the corn were burnt in the 
fire as an offering to the sun. The women also wore 
white, and the men had white feathers on their heads, and 
they all danced gayly to the music of whistles and drums. 

The Pueblo Indians.—In the far West were Indians who 
built houses that were like towns, for they had hundreds 

of rooms, so that a whole tribe, of as many as three thou- 

107 


THE INDfANS OF THE SOUTH aND WEST 


sand people, could live in a single house. These had no 
doors or windows, and could only be got into by ladders 
and through holes in the roof. There was not much rail? 



A PUEBLO HABITATION. 


where they were built, or they could not have had their 
doors in the roof. These people raised large crops of corn 
and other food-plants, and dug canals to bring the water 
from the rivers into their fields, for there was not rain 
enough to water them. 

The Cliff-Dwellers.—Some of their houses stood on the 
tops of high and steep hills, which were very hard to climb. 
This was done to protect them from the savage tribes 
which lived near by. There were also Indians who lived 
in holes in the sides of high cliffs, which they reached by 

very steep paths. These are called cliff-dwellers. It was 

108 

























THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST 


only in that way that they could save themselves from 
their enemies, who hunted them like so many wild beasts. 

The Number of Indians.—Very likely you think there 
were a great many Indians in this vast country which now 
holds so many millions of white men. This is a mistake; 
there were not many of them. There are three or four 
cities in our country to-day each of which has more people 
than all the Indians in this broad land when the whites 
first came. Men who live by hunting need much room to 
live in, while those who live by farming need little room. 

The Indians of To-Day.— The Indians are not so cruel 
now as they were when the white men first came to Amer¬ 
ica, and they do not fight so much as they did years ago. 
Many of them now live by farming, the younger girls and 
boys attend school at home and the older girls and boys 
are sent away to schools, where they are taught to work as 
well as to read and write. The boys learn trades and the 
girls learn to sew and to do house-work, and when they go 
back to their homes they engage in some useful work. 
These Indian schools are kept up by the government. Do 
you not think that it is better to treat the Indians in this 
way than to keep them in ignorance ? 

Tell about— 

1. The southern Indians. 

2. The green-corn festival. 

3. The Indians of the West. 

4. The cliff-dwellers. 

5. The number of Indians. 

6. The Indian schools 


109 


LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 


LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 

Useful Questions.—Do I not hear some of our readers 
asking questions? I hope they are doing so. It is well 
they should want to know more about the people who 
made their homes in America, what kind of people they 
were, how they lived, what work they did, and what good 
times they had. All this is part of the story of a people. 
Let us stop here and tell something about the life of the 
white people, as we have done about the life of the Indians. 

The Pioneer Houses.—No doubt you would like to 
know about the people of New England, the men and 
women who settled at Plymouth and Boston and spread 
out to other places. How did they live and what kind of 
houses did they have ? Well, it must be said that they had 
none of the great and fine buildings we see to-day, but 
lived in houses we would think small and plain. The first 
houses were built of logs, laid one upon another, and were 
only one story high. They had very steep roofs, covered 
with thatch; that is, with straw or reeds or any thing that 
would keep out the rain. 

Warming the Houses.—As time went on larger houses 
were built, some of wood and brick and some of stone. 
But the largest of these would look small to us. At first the 
chimneys were made of wood, covered on the inside with 
clay, so that they would not catch on fire. But later on 
they were built of stone. At the bottom of the chimneys 

were great stone fireplaces, some of them wide enough to 

no 


LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 


burn logs four feet long. In those days there were no 
stoves and only wood was burned. Coal was not used. 
And there were no fur¬ 


naces to heat the houses, 
so that the bedrooms in 
winter were icy cold. 
Everybody then went 
shivering to bed and 
got up shivering, and 
when they wanted to 
wash their faces they 



COLONIAL FIREPLACE. 


often had to break the 
ice to get at the water. 

Glass and Clocks.—There was very little glass for the 
windows, and oiled paper was used in its place. Where 
glass was used it was in small, thick panes set in lead 
These did not let much light through. Very few people 
had clocks, and most of them used the sun as a clock. 
That is, the houses faced to the south, so that when the 
sun shone straight in the windows the people knew that it 
was noon and time for dinner. There was not much furni¬ 
ture, and all they had was rude and rough, except that 
which was brought from England. 

Cooking* and Food.—The people of the house lived in 
the kitchen, where they could warm themselves before the 
great fire, and read by its light if they had any books. The 
rooking was done over this fire, the pots being hung on 
iron cranes and the pans set on the coals. But they did not 


ill 




















LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 


have as many things to cook as we have. Many of them 
lived on mnsh and milk, or pork and beans, and their 
bread was made of rye and cornmeal. 

The Glad Spring-Time.—I am sure if any of us had lived 
there in those days we should have been glad to see the 
spring-time come, and felt joy at the coming of the birds and 
the budding of the leaves and flowers. And on Sundays we 
should have put on our best clothes and gladly made our 
way to church through the green fields. The working 
people had only leather or coarse cloth to wear, and the 
women wore dresses of plain homespun* on week-days. 
Of course they had something better for Sundays. 


Dress of the Wealthy.—The rich 
made more show in their clothes, some 
of them wearing silk or velvet, with 
lace at their wrists and gold lace on 
their cloaks. They had rich belts and 
gold and silver buttons, and wore knee- 
breeches and high boots. In their 
hands they carried gold-headed canes, 
and in their pockets were snuff-boxes 
of gold or silver, of which they made 



COSTUMES OF THE PURITANS. 


much use, for nearly everybody then took snuff. Snuff, you 
should know, is tobacco dried and ground as fine as powder. 

* Homespun : Cloth spun and woven at home. Every farm-house 
had its spinning-wheel, on which the woman spun flax or wool into 
thread. This was woven into cloth, from which their clothing was 
made. 


112 






LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 


Titles Used.—In those days it was not the custom to 
call common people Mr. or Mrs. These were used only for 
preachers and people in high station, and all others, ex¬ 
cept servants, were called Good-man or Good-wife. There 
was little education in the old times, and a learned man or 
woman was held in great honor. 

Sports of the People.— You may want to know how the 
Puritans enjoyed themselves. We know that they had very 
little music and would not let any one dance, and most of 
their singing was of hymns and psalms. The games we 
have to-day were not known; but in spite of that the 
young people had their sports. They had what they called 
quilting- and husking-parties and spinning-bees, in which 
they got pleasure out of work. And they had sleigh-rides, 
and picnics, and hunting- and fishing-parties, and swimming 
and skating and other amusements. 

Feast-Days.— Then there was thanksgiving-day, when 
the tables were filled with good things to eat, and election- 
and training-days, when they had their out-door games. 
A wedding was a day of feast and frolic, and even a funeral 
was followed by a great dinner. Most of the people had 
to work hard and long to make a living, and they made 
the most of their few holidays. 

Going* to Church.—Sunday was their one day of rest. 
But no one could engage in sports or have fun on that 
day, for they thought it wicked to laugh or play on Sunday. 
All who did not go to church were punished. A bell or a 

horn or the sound of a drum would call them to church, 

113 


8 


LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 



that they might have to fight for life on their way to church. 
The church was like a fort, for it had around it a fence of 
strong stakes driven into the ground, and there was often 
a cannon or two near by or on its roof. 

Waking the Sleepers.—I am afraid none of us would 
have liked much to go to those old-time churches, for the 
sermons were very long and tiresome. Sometimes they 
would be three or four hours long, and it was a sad fault 

to go to sleep. The constable was always on hand with a 

114 


and off they would start, in their best clothes and with 
their guns on their shoulders. They had to bring these, for 
they knew that the Indians cared nothing for Sunday, and 


PURITANS GOING TO CHURCH. 

































LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 


long staiT to waken the sleepers. One end of his staff had 
on it the foot of a rabbit, and the other a rabbit’s tail. 
If a woman went to sleep he brushed the tail softly over 
her face. But if a boy took a nap, down would come the 
rabbit’s foot on his head with a sharp rap, and up he would 
start very wide awake. The old people then sat in one 
part of the church, the young men in another, and the 
young women in a third. Boys sat in the gallery or on 
the steps of the pulpit. It must have been fun to those 
who were wide awake to see the sleepers stirred up with a 
rap on the head. No doubt boys then were like boys now, 
and saw things to amuse them even in church, though they 
did not dare to laugh. 

How They Worked.—There was plenty of hard work 
to do. Most of the people were farmers, and the soil was 
poor and stony. Some worked in shops, making shoes, 
hats, paper, furniture, and tools for farming. The women 
had their spinning-wheels, and were kept busy making 
homespun cloth, of which I have already spoken. There 
were ship-yards on the coast where many vessels were 
built. Some of these sailed to the West Indies, and others 
went to the icy north in search of whales. 

A Life of Danger.—Every man and boy over sixteen 
years of age had to drill as a soldier. This was on account 
of the danger from the Indians. The farm-houses were 
built like forts, and the villages had strong buildings called 
block-houses, where all could run in times of danger. 

These had a second story wider than the first, with holes 

115 


LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 

in the floor, through which the men could fire down on the 
Indians below. It was a sad time when people had to be 
always ready to fight for their lives. 

Tell what you can about— 

1. The houses of the first settlers, how they lived, and what they 

had to eat. 

2. The clothes they wore. 

3. How they enjoyed themselves. 

4. How they were kept awake in church. 

5. How they worked. 

¥¥ 

LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND .SOUTHERN COLONIES. 

The People of Philadelphia.—Life in the middle colo¬ 
nies was not very different from life in New England. The 

Dutch of New York had 
their own ways, but these 
I have told about under 
the heading New York. 
In like manner the 
Friends, or Quakers, had 
their own ways in Phila¬ 
delphia, but there is not 
much new to be said 
about them. They lived 
in neat two-story houses, with wide gardens and orchards 
around them, and everybody had all the fruit they wanted. 

There were trees along the streets, and the houses were 

116 








LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 


often used for shops. To show that goods were for sale 
inside they hung out a basket, a beehive, a wooden anchor, 
or some such sign at the door. The people were very 
quiet and sober, and did not care much for amusements. 
In their houses and their work they were much like the 
people of New England. It is likely our boys and girls 
would have thought it dull and stupid in those old cities, 
but the people of those days did not think so, for they had 
never known anything better. 

The Southern People.—Life in the South was not like 
life in the Nor f h. In the first place, the people were differ¬ 
ent. They did not come to the New World to work or to 
pray, as the Puritans did, and did not expect to get rich 
by trading with the Indians for furs, like the Dutch. Many 
of them had been gentlemen in England, with more pride 
than money. These did not know how to work, and they 
hoped to get rich by finding mines of gold or silver, or in 
some such easy way. Others of them were poor men whk 
were sold for a time to the planters, and were little better 
than slaves. And soon negro slaves were bought and set 
to work on the farms or in the tobacco-fields. 

The Climate of the South.—In the second place, the 
South was much warmer than the North, so that life was 
easier and people did not suffer from the cold. They did 
not need to keep up such blazing fires or to huddle round 
the great open fireplaces to keep warm, and their house- 
walls did not have to be so thick and close. The people 

were not nearly so strict about church-going and were 

117 


LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 


fonder of sports, so that life here was much more gay and 
lively. 

Life on Farms.—There were no large towns in the 
South. Nearly all the people there were farmers and 
planters, raising tobacco and rice and other crops, so that 
their dwellings were like great farm-houses. There were 
not many little farms, for most of the land was cut up into 
large plantations,* with a great house in the middle, and the 
small houses of the slaves at a distance. Each of these 
had its little garden and poultry-yard, for the negroes have 
always been fond of poultry. 

Houses of the Planters.—The planters, when they 
grew rich, built themselves large wood or brick mansions, 



A MANOR-HOUSE IN VIRGINIA. 


often very grand inside. The stairs were broad, and hand¬ 
some woods were used for mantels and furniture. There 
was much gold- and silverware on the sideboards. Every- 

* Plantation: a great estate, often of many hundreds of acres. 

118 























LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 

where costly things were shown, and the planters were 
very glad to have travellers stop to see them, for they 
had a lonely life on their great estates. 

How the Planters Lived.—Many of the rich planters 
lived like lords, with fine horses in their stables and many 
hunting dogs. They went to church in a great coach drawn 
by six showy horses. They were fond of horse-racing, and 
were much given to gambling and drinking. 

How they Dressed.—The rich dressed in fine style, with 
three-cornered hats and long velvet 
coats, and with knee-breeches, silk 
stockings, and shoes with silver buck¬ 
les. Their hair was long and tied be¬ 
hind with a silk ribbon, and covered 
with white powder. This was their 
party dress. Such a dress would look 
very queer and old-fashioned nowa¬ 
days, but in those times it was thought 

DRESS OF THE VIRGINIANS. 

very grand. 

How the Poor Lived.—The poor white people led a 
different life. They wore coarse clothes and were mostly 
rough and ignorant. In the far South many of them 
lived in the back country, where they had small farms, 
and spent much of their time in hunting game in the woods. 
They lived far apart, and their only roads were paths 
through the forest. Notches were cut in the trees to shew 
the right path. This they called u blazing the way.” 

Lack of Schools. —There were no free schools any- 

119 





LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 


where in the South in those days and very little education. 
There were colleges for the children of the rich, and some 
of them sent their sons to England to be educated. But 
the poor had very little chance to learn, and most of them 
could not read or write. 

In the Carolinas.—In North Carolina there were great 
pine-woods along the coast, and the people made tar and 
turpentine from the trees. In South Carolina they raised 
rice instead of tobacco. Indigo was also grown there. Cot¬ 
ton was planted, but not much was done with it in the early 
days. Later it became the great crop of the far South. 

Life in the Backwoods.—What else would you like to 
know about those early days? There is so much to be 
told that it would take a book to tell it all. Children went 
barefoot in summer, and their fathers and mothers often 
did the same. In the backwoods the men wore a loose 
hunting shirt and a fur cap, and moccasins, or Indian skin- 
shoes, on their feet. They lived very much like Indians, 
and could track game as well as the red men. 

The Lights in Use.—They had very poor lights. No 
one dreamed of the electric light or even of gas, and there 
were scarcely any lamps. Candles were made of tallow, 
and some of the poor used torches of pitch-pine or burned 
a wick in a vessel of grease. Only a few dim oil-lanterns 
lit up the streets of the cities. It was late before stoves 
were used for heating, and later still before they were used 
for cooking. We would be very sorry, indeed, if we had 
to live as our forefathers did. 


120 


YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 


Tell about— 

1. How people lived in Philadelphia. 

2. What the Southern people were like. 

3. The planters and their houses. 

4. How the poor lived. 

5. How they dressed. 

6. What kind of lights they used. 

¥¥ 


YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Poor Boys who Became Great Men.—It is a good thing 
to know that many of the great and wise men who have 
lived in the world began life as poor boys and had to work 
hard for their living. There was Abraham Lincoln, who 
was a very poor boy, but who became President of the 
United States. There have been dozens of such men, 
some who lived long ago, and some who live now. Does 
it not give hope even to the poorest to learn that others 
as poor as they have become great and rich and wise, 
and been honored by all the world? Let us talk now 
about one of these, tell how a poor boy became a great 
man, and what he had to do with the history of our 
country. 

Mr. Franklin, of Boston.—You know where Boston is, 
and how it was settled by the Puritans. Long after that 
time there lived in Boston a poor man named Josiah 
Franklin, and, like many poor men, he had many children 

to take care of. There were seventeen of them in all, rnt 

121 


YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 


the youngest son, who was named Benjamin, is the only 
one that you will care to know about. 

From School to Candle-Making*.—Mr. Franklin made 
soap and candles for a living, and his children had to help 
him, for he could not afford to hire help. Little Benjamin 
was put at this work when he was ten years old. He had 
been only two years at school, and never went again. He 
had learned little more than how to read and write, and 
was now kept busy in the candle-shop, cutting wicks, pour¬ 
ing melted tallow, running errands, and doing other work. 

Reading and Playing.—The little lad did not like this. 
He was very fond of reading, but he had no chance to read 
except at night, by the light of the kitchen fire or of one 

of the tallow candles 
he had helped to 
make. Like many 
boys, he loved to 
play about the water, 
to fish and swim 
and row a boat, and 
now and then he 
got into mischief, as 
boys are apt to do. 
At one time he 
thought it would be 
a fine thing to have a wharf to fish from, so he got the 
other boys to help him build one out of some stones that 
were to be used to build a house. 



THE KITCHEN FIRE. 


122 





























YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 


The Pay that Mischief Brings.—This was done in the 
evening, and when the men came to work on the house 
the next morning they found that the stones were gone, 
while a new stone pier reached out into the water. This 
made them very angry, and they complained to the parents 
of the boys. Young Franklin and some of the rest of them 
got paid for their fun with a good whipping. He said he 
thought that work was useful, and that it was a good thing 
to build a pier, but his father told him that nothing was 
useful that was not honest. 

Benjamin Wants to be a Sailor.—The boy grew so fond 
of the water that he wanted to go to sea and be a sailor. 
This, he thought, would be better than making candles, 
which he did not like at all. When his father found he 
had such a notion, he was afraid he might run away and 
go to sea, as one of his other sons had done, so he looked 
around for some work that the boy would like better. 

Learning to Print.—One of his sons, James Franklin, 
had a printing-office, and as Benjamin was so fond of books 
his father thought he might like this business, so he put 
him to work at the printing trade in his brother’s office. 
Benjamin found this much nicer than making candles, and 
he soon learned to set types and do the work of the office. 
But what he most liked to do was to go to the book-stores, 
where he would borrow books to read. Sometimes he sat 
up all night to read a book so that he might take it back in 
the morning. In that way he got to know more than 

many boys who go to school for a long time. 

123 


YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 


Living- without Meat.—Benjamin had a great fancy for 
trying new things. One of these was to live without meat. 
He told his brother that if he would give him half the 
money he paid for his board he would find his own food. 
James did this, and the boy at once quit eating meat and 
lived on bread and potatoes and other cheap things. In 
this way he saved a little money, which he spent for books. 
He liked to feed his mind more than to feed his body. 

Writing Verses.—In this way Benjamin got to know 
many things, and he grew so fond of books that he soon 
began to write himself. He began by writing verses, which 
his brother printed and sent him round town to sell. It 
made the boy very proud to sell his own poetry, but his 
father laughed at him. “Verse-makers,” he told him, 
'‘are likely to be beggars.” 

Writing for a Newspaper.—When Benjamin heard this 
he gave up poetry and took to writing prose. His brother 
printed a little newspaper, one of the first in America, and 
Benjamin wrote small things for this paper. He used to 
go down to the office at night and slip them under the 
door, so that no one would know who wrote them. His 
brother liked these pieces, and printed them in his paper, 
and the boy grew proud again when he heard them talked 
of in the office as very good. He did not tell any one that 
he had written them. 

Benjamin as an Editor.—But it was not a pleasant 
thing to print a newspaper in those days. There was 

something put in the paper that made the governor very 

124 


YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 


angry, and James Franklin was sent to prison for a month. 
While he was in prison Benjamin got out the paper, and 
put in it some very sharp things which he wrote himself. 
It is likely these made the governor angry again, for when 
James was set free he was told he could not print a news¬ 
paper any longer. 

He Leaves the Office.—James did not want to give up 
his paper, so he now printed it in the name of Benjamin 
Franklin. It was a great thing for a boy to have his name 
put at the head of a newspaper, and it may have made 
him a little saucy. His brother and he had many quarrels, 
and after a while Benjamin said he would not work for 
him any longer, and left the office. 

Benjamin Leaves Boston.—He tried to get work in the 
other printing-offices in town, but none of them would take 
him, so he made up his mind to leave Boston. He got 
some money by selling some of his books, and took passage 
on a sloop for New York. This was done secretly, for he 
was still only a boy of seventeen. There was no work to 
be had in New York, so he set out once more, this time for 
Philadelphia. 

Tell about— 

1. Poor boys who became great men. 

2. How Benjamin Franklin got his education. 

3. How he got into mischief. 

4. His work in his brother’s office. 

5. How he wrote for a newspaper. 

6. What made him leave Boston. 

125 


FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 


FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA. 

A Journey to Philadelphia.—If one of us wished to go 
from New York to Philadelphia we would get into a car on 
an express train, and be taken there in two hours. But 
there were no railroads in early times, and it took young 
Benjamin Franklin more than two days to make the same 
journey. Part of the way he went in a boat and part of it 
he went on foot. When he got to Philadelphia he walked 
up the street in his working clothes with his spare stock¬ 
ings and shirt stuffed into his pockets. He was hungry and 
bought three large rolls of bread in a baker's shop. Two 
of these he put under his arms and went on eating the 
third, while he looked about him at the city. 

Franklin is Laughed at.— A girl named Deborah Read, 
who was standing at the door of her father’s shop, saw him 
as he walked along, and laugned to see the funny-looking 
boy with his hands and his arms full of bread and his 
pockets full of clothes. Deborah got to know this boy bet¬ 
ter in later years, and in the end she became his wife, and 
a very good wife she was. 

A Hard-Working Boy.—Benjamin soon got work to do 
in Philadelphia. He had read so much and was such a 
good worker that he got along very well. It was not many 
years before he had a printing-office of his own, and a 
newspaper, too, which he soon made one of the best in 
the country. He worked very hard to pay for all this, and 

might be seen at work in his office late at night. When 

126 


FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 


he wanted paper he was not too proud to wheel it along 
the street in a wheelbarrow in his plain working-clothes, 
for he did not think it 
any disgrace to work. 

Benjamin in Busi¬ 
ness.—Any one who 
works this Vay is sure 
to get along. The 
young printer did many 
things to help him on. 

He sold stationery, rags, 
soaps, and coffee in his 
shop. He made ink. 

He bound books. And 
all the time he kept 
reading, until people began to look on him as a very learned 
man. After he married Deborah Read, she helped him 
in the shop and did all the work of the house. They 
lived in a very plain way, for they wanted to get out of 
debt and save money. Thus it was that Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin in time began to grow rich. 

A Plain-Speaking' Editor.—Franklin soon showed the 
people that he was a man of good sense and that he was 
Hot afraid to say what he thought. Some people thought 
he spoke too plainly in his paper, and told him that if he 
did not quit writing in that way they would stop taking 
his paper. When they said this Franklin said nothing back 

except to ask them to come and take supper with him. 

127 


















FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 


Franklin’s Supper Party.—The fault-finding people 
came, for they thought they would get something very good 
to eat. But when they sat down at the table they opened 
their eyes wide, for they saw nothing to eat but a large dish 
of corn-meal mush and only a pitcher of cold water to drink. 
This mush was made of coarse, yellow meal. Only the 
poorest people ate it, and it was called “ sawdust pudding.” 

“ Help yourselves, gentlemen,” said Franklin. He filled 
up his plate and theirs also, and ate away as if he thought 
it very good, but his guests only played with their spoons. 
They could not eat such food. 

“ My friends,” said Franklin, when he had finished his 

supper, “ I wish to say thai any one 
who can live, as I do, on sawdust 
pudding and cold water does not 
need your help. So you need not 
take the paper if you do not like 
it.” After that they let Franklin 
alone, and more people than ever 
read his paper. 

Poor Richard’s Almanac.— 
Franklin soon started an almanac, 
which he called “ Poor Richard’s Almanac.” Many people 
read almanacs in those days. This one was full of wise 
and witty sayings, many of them about saving time and 
money, and soon everybody was buying the almanac, for 
there were not many books to be had. It was printed 

yearly for many years and became quite famous. 

128 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 


FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 


Franklin Works for the City.—But Franklin did not 
spend all his time in making money. He was always 
doing something for the good of the city. He got some of 
his friends to bring their books together, and in that way 
he started the first public library in America. He also got 
the people to form a fire company and a military company, 
and to pave their muddy sidewalks with stone. These 
were a few of the many things he did for Philadelphia. 

The Franklin Stove.—We have told about the big fire¬ 
places, where the people did their cooking and warmed 
themselves. But they had to burn a great deal of wood, 
for most of the heat went up the wide chimney. Franklin 
made a sort of iron fireplace or open stove that saved 
much of the heat and was used for a long time. It was 
called the Franklin stove. 

What is Lightning?—Franklin, as I have said, was 
always trying to find out new things. One thing he wanted 
to learn was what made the lightning. He thought it 
might be the same thing as e-lec-tri'ci-ty, which many 
learned men were then studying. Electricity is a common 
thing now, and gives us the electric light, the telegraph, and 
the trolley-car; but then people knew very little about it. 

The Kite in the Clouds.—Franklin thought that if light¬ 
ning was the same as electricity it would pass along a string 
the same way. So one stormy day he raised a kite up into 
the clouds with a string of hemp, and with a key tied to the 
bottom. After he had waited awhile a spark came from 

the key into his fingers and he felt a shock. This made 

129 


9 


FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 


him very glad, for now he knew that lightning was indeed 
electricity. That kite-raising made him famous all over 
the world, and it gave him the idea of the lightning-rod, 
which carries lightning away from houses. 

Franklin as a Patriot.—Franklin did many things for 
the country. When war broke out with the French He 
helped to build forts and buy wagons and raise soldiers. 
Later on there was war with England, and Franklin was 
one of the most active of men. He was sent to France to 
try and get help from the French king, and after the war 
he was one of those who made the treaty of peace. 

What he did for the Country.—When he got home 
again there was no one in this Country whom the people 
thought so much of. He was nearly the only American 
whose name was known all over the world. He had 
helped to make the country free, and he helped afterwards 
to make the great state paper called the Con-sti-tu'tion. 
Then he died, an old and honored man. Thus the poor 
little Boston boy became in time one of the greatest and 
noblest of men. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. How Franklin came to Philadelphia. 

2. How he started business. 

3. His dinner on sawdust pudding. 

4. What Poor Richard’s Almanac was like. 

5. What Franklin did for Philadelphia. 

6. The story of the kite. 

7. What he did for the country. 

130 


» 


YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON 

YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

A Virginia Boy.—At the same time that Benjamin 
Franklin was printing his paper and selling goods in his 
shop a boy was born in Virginia who was to become as 
great a man as he, but in another way. The Boston boy 
became great in peace, but the Virginia boy was to become 
great in war. He was not a poor boy like Franklin, for his 
father lived on a plantation and had many slaves, and the 
son was sent for years to school. 

Washington at School.—This boy’s name was George 
Washington. He was not a great reader like Franklin, and 
it is likely he was fonder of play out of doors than of study 
in school, for he was a strong, manly boy, who could beat 
all his school-mates in their sports. There was not one of 
them who could run as fast, or jump as far, or throw a 
stone as high as he could. When they played soldier he 
was always their captain, and he thought much more of 
being a soldier than of being a scholar. There are many 
stories told about what he did in his young days, but it is 
very likely that most of these things did not take place, so 
I will not speak of them. 

Lord Fairfax’s Land.—George stayed at school until he 
was sixteen years of age. He became a great friend of 
Lord Fairfax, who owned a large tract of land in Virginia, 
and with whom he often went out hunting. One thing 
George had learned was to survey or measure land, and 

Lord Fairfax hired him to survey his land, which lay west 

231 


YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON 


of the mountains, in what is now called the Shen-an-do'ah 
Valley. So, taking another boy with him, our lad of sixteen 
set out for this work. 

Life in the Woods.—It was a wild country; the forests 
spread far over the valley and the mountain-sides. There 
were some white men in that country, but there were In¬ 
dians, too, and a party of them once danced a war-dance 

for the young sur¬ 
veyors. The two 
boys had to make 
their own paths 
through the woods, 
and shoot wild tur¬ 
keys or squirrels, 
and sometimes a 
deer, for food. This 


* 

meat they would cook by holding 
it over the fire on a stick. When 
they wanted plates they would cut 
some large chips from a tree with 
their axe. They did not have 
much trouble in washing their dishes. They could throw 
them into the fire and cut new ones for the next time. 

A Forest Survey.—All day long they would work in the 
woods with a long chain, measuring the land, and making 
a map of their work. Then they would go to sleep under 
the trees wrapped in a blanket. They made a fire if the 

weather was cold. When Washington came back, Lord 

132 



THE YOUNG SURVEYORS. 





YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON 


Fairfax was much pleased with the work he had done, and 
paid him very well for it. 

The English and the French.— The time came when 
there was other work for Washington to do. We have told 
how the French settled in Canada and along the great lakes. 
The English settled along the coast, but they were now 
going deeper into the forests and the mountains. Between 
the French and the English there was a broad country 
which both of them claimed to own, but in which no one 
lived but the Indians. 

The French Forts.—About the year 1750 the French 
made up their minds to take this land for their own, and 
soon they were building forts south of Lake Erie. It was 
the Ohio River they wanted, for the English were moving 
west to settle along this river and the French were trying 
to stop them. The lands on the Ohio were very rich, and 
both parties wanted to take and hold them. 

What the Governor Did.—When the governor of Vir¬ 
ginia heard what the French were doing he did not like it 
at all. This land, he said, belonged to England, not to 
France, and the French must leave it or fight for it. He 
decided to send some one there to tell them this, and 
he picked out George Washington as the best man for 
the task. 

Washington as a Woodsman.— Washington was very 
young for such work. He was just twenty-one years old. 
But he was tall and strong and quick-witted and not afraid 

of any man or anything. And he knew all about the 

133 


YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON 


woods and the Indians and how to take care of himself in 
the deep forest. This made him very fit for the task, for he 
would have to go more than a thousand miles through the 
wild woods, and over mountains and streams, and through 
the cold and snows. 

The Journey to the Forts.—Washington put on Indian 
clothes, and set out with a man named Gist (jist) and some 
others on his long journey to the French forts. He was 
now Major Washington, for the governor had made him an 
army officer. Part of the way he went on horseback, but 
part of it had to be on foot. There were no roads through 
the woods, nothing but Indian paths, and there were moun- 
tains to climb and rivers to swim. 

The French Plans.—After a long journey they reached 
the French fort, but they soon found that the French 
had come there to stay. The land was theirs, they said, 
and they would not give it up to please the English. 
They were getting canoes ready to go on to the Ohio 
River the next spring. 

The Indian Guide.—When he found he could do no 
more at the fort, Washington started back. Part of the 
way he went in canoes and part on foot, for the horses 
were too weak to travel. Washington and Gist went on by 
themselves, with an Indian for guide. But the Indian was 
a bad man, and one day he fired at them and tried to kill 
them. After that they went on alone through the deep 
woods, and in a few days more came to the banks of a 
wide river. 


134 


YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON 


Crossing 1 the Alleghany. —This river was the Al-le- 
gha'ny, which flows into the Ohio. It had been frozen, 
but the ice was 
now broken and 
was floating down 
the stream. There 
was only one thing 
to do. They made 
a raft out of logs 
and got on it, using 
long poles to push 
it through the ice. 

While they were 
crossing a great piece of ice struck Washington’s pole and 
he was thrown into the freezing water. He had hard work 
to climb back on to the raft again. 

A Night on an Island.—They got ashore after a while 
on a little island, but there was no wood on this and they 
could not make a fire. Washington was wet to the skin 
with the cold water and had to walk about all night to 
keep from freezing. The next morning they found that the 
ice was frozen, and walked over it to the other side. 

Washington’s Report.— Washington soon after got a 
horse and rode back to Virginia, where the governor was 
glad to see him and hear his report. It was very plain that 
if the English wanted the land they would have to fight for 
it, for the French were not going to give it up. There had 

been fighting between the French and the English before, 

135 



WASHINGTON CROSSING THE ALLEGHANY RIVER. 
















WASHINGTON IN WAR 


but now there was to be a great war, which would last for 
years. 

Tell about— 

1. George Washington’s school-days. 

2. How he surveyed in the woods. 

3. What the French and the English wanted. 

4. How Washington went to the French forts. 

5. The Indian guide and the icy river. 

6. What Washington told the governor. 

¥¥ 

WASHINGTON IN WAR. 

War and its Effects.— No one can write history without 
saying a great deal about fighting, for there are not many 
years without war in some part of the world, and this great 
country was not settled without very many men being 
killed in battle. It is sad that this is the case. It would be 
more pleasant if there was nothing to say except about 
peace and plenty and good feeling. But we cannot do so, 
for there are many dreadful tales to tell about war between 
the English and the French and the Indians in America. 

Washington in the Woods again.— You have been told 
about Washington’s long journey through the woods and 
how he crossed a wide river through the floating ice. That 
would be enough for many of us, but Washington went 
back again in a few months. He took soldiers with him, 
for the French had built a fort on the Ohio River, and the 

English wanted to drive them away. 

.136 


WASHINGTON IN WAR 


The Loss of Fort Necessity.—This was sure to lead to 
war, for these French were all soldiers and were not going 
to give up their fort without a fight. Washington was not 
at all afraid of them, but he did not have nearly so many 
men as they had, so he built a small fort which he called 
Fort Necessity, and put all his men in it. On came the 
French, and a great many Indians with them, and they 
made a fierce attack on the fort. Washington and his men 
fought well, but the French and Indians were too strong for 
him, so he was obliged to give up the fort. This took place 
on the 4th of July, 1754, just twenty-two years before the 
4th of July which we celebrate as the great American holi¬ 
day, and of which I shall tell you farther on. 

The War with France.—The fight at Fort Necessity was 
the beginning of a war which kept on for seven long years 
and spread all over the country. It cost a great deal of 
money, and thousands of lives were lost, but in the end the 
English got the best of it, and the French were forced to give 
up all the land they held in North America. Many of them 
stayed in Canada, but they had to live there under the rule 
of the king of England, and this they did not like very well. 

Braddock and his Red-Coats.—As soon as the kings of 
England and France heard that their people in America 
were at war they tried to help them, and sent soldiers 
across the ocean to take part in the fight. An English army 
was sent to Virginia to drive the French from the fort they 
had built on the Ohio River. These soldiers were led by 

a general named Braddock, one of the kind of men who 

137 


WASHINGTON IN WAR 


think they know so much that nobody can teach them any¬ 
thing. You know there are people of this kind, and that 
they often get into trouble. Braddock laughed at the Amer¬ 
ican soldiers, who did not make much show beside the fine 
British soldiers with their bright red coats and their shining 
muskets. But he was to find that these rough men knew 
much more about fighting the Indians than his showy troops. 

Marching- through the Forest.—This proud General 
Braddock, with his fine British soldiers, soon set out to 
fight the French and Indians. They had a long march to 

make, through the thick woods 
and over the rough mountains, 
and they went along like so many 
snails, a few miles a day, cutting 
down the trees and making a road 
as they went. Washington was 
with them, and so were 
a good many of the 
Virginia troops that 
Braddock had laughed 
at. It is likely that 
Washington told the 
smart general that he 
was wasting his time in 
making a road, but Gen- 
braddock’s route. eral Braddock thought 

he knew too much about war to listen to anything an 
American might say. 



138 























WASHINGTON IN WAR 


Captain Jack’s Company.—One day a company of men 
marched into the camp. They were rough-looking fellows, 
for they wore Indian leggings and hunting-shirts and carried 
battered old guns, but they knew much better than the 
British how to shoot straight and how to fight Indians. At 
their head was a famous hunter called Captain Jack. All 
his family had been killed by the Indians, and since then he 
had spent his life in fighting them. Those men wanted 
to join Braddock’s army. But the proud general looked at 
his own men with their fine suits and then at these rough 
men of the woods, and told them that he did not want 
them. He thought to himself, what do countrymen like 
these know about war? Wards a trade that has to be 
learned. My men know what it is and will make short 
work of the French and their Indians. 

Washington’s Advice.—They went on and on and after 
a while they came near the French fort. Washington now 
said to Braddock,— 

“ Let me go ahead with the Virginia men. They are used 
to the woods and will drive the Indians out of their hiding- 
places.” 

It made General Braddock angry to think that an Amer¬ 
ican should tell him what to do. 

“ I have heard enough about your Indians and their 
hiding-places,” he said. “ You will see they will not stay 
in them long when my men come in sight and they hear the 
crack of their muskets.” 

So he marched on like an old know-all. He was too 


139 


WASHINGTON IN WAR 


full of conceit to listen to good advice, and did not like to 
be told what to do by any one. 

The Indian Ambush.—At length the soldiers came into 
a narrow place, with steep banks and thick woods on each 
side. On they went, with their flags flying and their drums 
beating, and marching as if they were moved by clock¬ 
work. But all at once they heard loud yells from the 
woods around them and guns began to crack on every side. 
It was the war-cry of the red men. The woods were full 
of French and Indians, who were shooting at the British in 
the narrow pass, though not a man of them could be seen. 

The Battle.—The red-coat soldiers fell like so many 
birds shot at by hunters. They tired back into the bushes, 
but they could see nobody, and wasted their bullets on the 
leaves and twigs. Washington and his men knew what 
they were about and ran into the woods and got behind 
trees. But Braddock would not let his men do the same. 
He kept them in their ranks and made them stand still to 
be shot at. 

Washington’s Charmed Life.—You can see that there 
could be only one end to this. After a while a bullet struck 
General Braddock, and when his men saw him fall they 
turned and ran for their lives. More than half of them 
had been killed, and all of them might have been slain had 
it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who kept 
back the French and the Indians. Washington had two 
horses shot under him and four bullets went through his 

coat. Long afterwards an old Indian chief said he had 

140 


WASHINGTON IN WAR 


fired many times at Washington, but that his bullets could not 
touch the young American brave, who bore a charmed life. 



BRADDOCR’S DEFEAT. 


How the Settlers Suffered.—This defeat was a bad one 
for the settlers all through that part of the country. The 
Indians began to attack them and to murder all they could. 
Their houses were burned and they had to fly for their 
lives, and many of them were slain by their cruel foes. 
Washington was the hero of the people, and for three years, 
he fought the Indians on the frontier. He did all he could 
to save the poor settlers, but the red savages were every¬ 
where and their war-whoops seemed to fill the woods. 

141 









' WASHINGTON IN WAR 


Fort Duquesne Taken.—This went on for three years, 
then another army was sent to take Fort Duquesne (du- 
kane'), the French fort. The new general, like Braddock, 
wasted time in making a road through the woods. But 
Washington asked to go ahead with his men, and when the 
French saw him coming they set the fort on fire and fled. 
That ended the war on the Ohio River, which was given 
up to the English. The fort was built up again and named 
Fort Pitt. Where it stood is now the great and busy city 
of Pittsburg. 

What came from the War.—I have not told the whole 
story of this war. There was fighting all through the north, 



and for a time the French had the best of it, but in the end 
they were driven back into Canada. Then the strong city 
of Quebec was taken by General Wolfe, and soon after the 
city of Montreal (mont-re-awl') was taken. This ended the 
war. A treaty was made in which the French gave up all 

142 






KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


they owned in America. Since that time the whole of 
Canada has belonged to England. 

Washington as a Parmer.— During the war Washington 
got married, and after it was over he went back to his home 
at Mount Vernon, where he had a large farm or plantation. 
Here he spent many years in farming and in hunting and 
fishing, of which he was very fond. He hoped that he was 
done with war. He did not know then that another great 
war was coming and that he would have to spend many 
more years in fighting. 

Tell in your own words what you remember of— 

1. How Washington built a fort. 

2. How the French and English fought 

3. How General Braddock marched through the forest. 

4. The story of Captain Jack. 

5. What Washington wanted to do. 

6. The battle in the woods. 

7. How the war ended. 

¥¥ 

KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES. 

How Washington Lived.— It would be easy to tell a 
long story of how Washington lived on his farm, how his 
corn and tobacco grew and his cattle grazed in the pasture- 
fields. And I might tell how he looked after his men, and, 
when he wanted a change, went to the woods to hunt and 
to the streams to fish. But I must leave my readers to 
think out all this for themselves, and go on with the story 
of our country. 


143 


KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


Washington and Franklin.— While Washington was at 
work on his farm there were things taking place in the 
country which he could not have liked very much. Both 
he and Benjamin Franklin knew well all that was going on. 



MOUNT VERNON, WASHINGTON’S HOME. 


Franklin saw that troubles were coming and tried to stop 
them in peaceful ways, but Washington kept on at his work 
and waited until his country should want his aid in war. 
So we must leave these two great men looking on and tell 
what these troubles were. 

The English Kings.— Do you remember the names of 
the English kings that have been given ? It does not matter 
if you have forgotten, for kings are only men, and Ameri¬ 
cans have learned to get along very well without them. 
There were Charles I. and Charles II., and James I. and 
James II., and one named William, and three named 
George. It is with the last of these, known as George the 
Third, or George III., that we have now to do, 

144 







KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 

A Stubborn King. —George III. was not a wise man. 
He had not much good sense, and, like many other men 
without sense, he was very stubborn. Like General Brad- 
dock, he did not want any one to tell him what to do. All 
this made much trouble for America, but in the end it set 
this country free from England. So we have much to 
thank George III. for; a good deal more than he ever 
thought we would. 

How England Treated the Colonies. —As soon as the 
war with France was at an end a dispute with England 
began. The people in America needed many things and 
thought they could make these things for themselves, but 
England would not let them do so. Her people wanted to 
make all the cloth, and all the iron goods, and nearly every¬ 
thing else for this country. The people here were to be 
kept at farming, but they were told they must not send 
their grain to England, but must eat it all at home. They 
could not even send paper, hats, iron, or other things from 
one colony to another, as from Pennsylvania to New York. 

Money Wanted by the King,— That was one cause of 
trouble. Another was that King George wanted to send 
soldiers to this country, to keep the French from trying to 
get back what they had lost. He said that the Americans 
ought to pay the cost of these soldiers, but he soon found 
that the Americans were not willing to do anything of the 
kind. They did not want the British soldiers, for they felt 
quite able to take care of themselves. The king also asked 

for money to pay the governors and judges in America, but 

145 


10 


KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


the people here would not vote money for any such pur¬ 
pose. They could pay those officers themselves, as they 
always had done, and did not want the king to pay for 
them. They were afraid to trust their money in King 
George’s hands. 

The British Parliament.—All this made the king very 
angry. He called the Americans hard names, and said he 
would make them give him what money he wanted. He 
would tax them and make them pay. The king had no right 
to tax the people of England, but he thought he could tax the 
Americans. The English would not pay any taxes laid by 
the king, only those laid by the Parliament (par'le-ment). 
You should know that Parliament is a body of law-makers 
like our Congress. Its members are chosen by the people 
and act for them, and the people will only do what their 
Parliament agrees to. 

The Stamp Tax.—The king and Parliament did not 

think the American people had any 
such rights. They looked on them 
as low and base fellows whose duty 
it was to do as they were told. So 
they began to lay taxes on the 
Americans. The first tax they tried 
was what is called a stamp tax. No 
paper was to be good for anything 
unless it had one of these stamps 
on it, and the stamps must be bought and paid for. Even 

every newspaper had to have a stamp on it. But the 

146 



A STAMP-ACT STAMP. 




KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


Americans would not buy the stamps, and they burned all 
they could get hold of. 

The Tax on Tea.—When the king found that they would 
not use his stamps, he tried to raise money by taxing sev¬ 
eral kinds of goods. One of these was tea. He said that 
all the tea sent to America should pay a tax. Ship-loads of 
tea were sent across the ocean, but the Americans made up 
their minds not to use an ounce of it. They would make 
tea out of dry leaves first. They had the same rights as 
the English, they said. Nobody should tax them except 
the people whom they had chosen to act for them. There 
was no American in the British Parlia¬ 
ment, and therefore Parliament had no 
right to tax them. 

The Boston Tea-Party.—The tea ships 
came to the seaport towns, but the 
people there would not let them bring 
their tea on shore. In Boston the citi¬ 
zens did more than this. One night 
while the ship lay in the harbor, wait¬ 
ing to unload its tea, there was heard a 
loud war-whoop on the wharf, and a party 
of men dressed like Indians jumped on 
the deck of the ship. In a very short 
time they were lifting the chests of tea 
from the hold, breaking them open with 
hatchets, and pouring the tea into the water. They kept 

on until every leaf of the tea had gone to the fishes. 

147 



THE BOSTON TEA* 
PARTY. 









KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


Then, with another war-whoop, they sprang ashore and 
ran like wild Indians up the street. This was what is 
called the “ Boston Tea-Party.” 

No English Goods Used.—Americans liked tea, but they 
did not like tea with an English tax on it, and they would 
not use any of it. They made tea out of leaves and roots _ 
and drank that instead of the real tea. And they made 
up their minds not to use any cloth or any other goods 
brought from England. King George was stubborn enough, 
but he found that the people across the ocean could be 
stubborn too. 

Closing the Port of Boston.—The Boston tea-party 
made the king so angry that he said he would soon let the 
people of Boston know who was king and who was not. 
So he ordered that no ships, except his own war-ships, 
should come into or go out from Boston harbor. And he 
sent soldiers to Boston to make the people obey his laws. 
The closing of the port was a bad thing for the poor 
people of Boston, for soon there was no work for them 
to do, and food became so scarce that they had very little 
to eat. 

The First Congress.—The Americans now felt that 
things could not go on in this way very long and they must 
do something for themselves. So men were sent from all 
the colonies to Philadelphia to attend a meeting there and 
decide what had best be done. This meeting was called a 
Congress. It was made up of the best men of the country, 

one of them being George Washington. The Congress 

148 


KING GEORGE AND THE COLONIES 


talked the matter over and sent a letter to the king, asking 
him to give the people of this country the same rights as 
the people of England 
had. This letter only 
made King George more 
angry and stubborn than 
before. Wise men could 
see that if this went on 
there would be Avar, but 
the king \\ T as not a wise 
man, and he thought that 
if he kept firm the Amer¬ 
icans would give him all 
he asked for. 

The Minute for War.—The king soon found out his 
mistake. What the Americans did Avas to gather guns and 
poAvder and to drill men. These were called “ minute- 
men,” Avhich meant they Avould be ready to fight in a 
minute, if they must. The minute for fighting soon came. 
The British soldiers in Boston tried to destroy some of 
the powder and guns Avhich the people had gathered, and 
almost at a minute’s notice there was war in the land. 



CARPENTERS’ HALL, PHILADELPHIA, WHERE 
THE FIRST COLONIAL CONGRESS MET. 


Tell the story of— 

1. How Washington and Franklin watched and waited. 

2. What kind of a king George III. was. 

3. How England tried to get money from America. 

4 . What Parliament and Congress are. 

149 






















THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


Also tell about— 

1. The stamp tax. 

2. The tax on tea. 

3. The Boston tea-party. 

4. What the king did. 

5. The first Congress. 


THE DAWN OF LIBERTY. 

The Light in the Steeple.—One clear night in the month 
of April, of the year 1775, a man stood near the river that 
runs past Boston, looking at a church steeple far off on the 
other side. By his side was a horse with saddle and bridle 
on and ready for a long ride. The man stood there for 
several hours, still watching, but it was near midnight 
when he saw a light flash from a window of the distant 
steeple. In a minute more he was in the saddle and was 
riding away at full speed. That light was the signal he 
had been waiting to see. 

What the Light Told.—That flash of light told the man 
a great deal. It said that a strong force of British troops 
had set out on the road to Concord, a town about twenty 
miles from Boston, to destroy some military stores which 
the Americans had at that place. He was now riding as 
fast as his horse could go to tell the people that the British 
were coming and that they must look out for themselves 
and their stores. The man’s name was Paul Revere. 

150 


THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


\ 



The Ride of Paul Revere.—On he went through the 
night. Some British officers tried to stop him, but he got 
past them and rode along at full speed. At every house he 
came to he woke 
the people with a 
loud shout. “ The 
British are com¬ 
ing !” he cried, as 
he rode on. As 
soon as they heard 
this the men of the 
houses seized their 
rifles and powder- 
horns and hurried 
to their places of 
meeting, for they 
knew that the time 
to act had come. 

Many of them gath¬ 
ered in the little 
village of Lexing¬ 
ton, on the road to 
Concord. Here Paul Revere roused the people with loud 
shouts, and while he rode on towards Concord the people 
of Lexington hurried to the village green, with their guns 
in their hands. 

On Lexington Green.—The next morning, before the 

rising of the sun, the British soldiers came marching, with 

151 


PAUL REVERE S RIDE. 




















THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


sound of fife and drum, into Lexington. They were fine- 
looking fellows, with their red coats and their shining guns. 
The rough country folk on the village green made but a 
poor show before them. But these were noble fellows for 
all that, for they were there to fight for their country, and 
they were going to strike the first blow for American lib¬ 
erty. The day you should bear in mind. It was the 19th 
of April, 1775. 

Martyrs to Freedom.—The British officer called to these 
men, in a loud voice, “ Disperse, you rebels ; lay down your 
arms and disperse.” They stood still, and he then told his 
men to fire. In a minute the guns blazed out and seven of 
the Americans fell dead. Those 'shots began the war. It 
was not to end until America was free. Those dead men 
were martyrs in the great cause of freedom. 

The Fight at Concord.—After this bad business at Lex¬ 
ington, the soldiers marched in all haste to Concord to 
destroy the stores. They were too late. The people had 
been warned by Paul Revere, and the stores were all hid 
in the woods. But a company of American farmers had 
gathered to meet the British soldiers, and a fight took 
place. The killing was now not all on one side. When 
the fight was over red coats as well as brown coats lay on 
the ground, and the dust was stained with the blood of 
British as well as of Americans. 

A^Terrible March.—The soldiers soon began their long 
march back to Boston, and now the people came flocking 

like hornets out of their nests. They stood behind trees and 

152 


THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


barns and stone walls and fired at the soldiers in the road. 
The British fell like dead leaves. Few of them would have 
seen Boston again if they had not been met by more soldiers 
at Lexington. They had said that the Americans were 
cowards and would not fight. They did not think so at the 
end of that day, for many of them lay dead in the road. 

Closing* in on Boston.—The news of that day’s work 
spread over the country as fast as a fire will spread through 
dry leaves. The farmers left their ploughs and took down 

their rifles. The minute- 
men did not lose a min¬ 
ute in taking to the road. 


* 


.n' I 



X A 

Concord { 

\ ft 


\ zl ( 


Jk -Lexington 


Menotomy^ 
Spy Pond ( 


1 Mystic Pond 

Medford 
fjii/slic 




FresliSPond 


Charles 


Cambridge 

5 


Bunker) 
Hill 




Brookline - 


Roxbury 


On all sides men 
hurried along the 
roads to Boston, 
with the old guns 
they had used in 
the F rench war. 

Soon there were 
twenty thousand of 
them around the 
city. The British were shut in like so many rats in a trap. 

They would never march to Concord again. 

153 


BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

































THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


War and Peace.—I am sorry to have to talk about war. 
War is a dreadful thing, in which men are killed and their 
blood is poured like water into the ground. It would 
be far better if all disputes could be settled without war. 
Some day that may be the case, but in all past times nations 
and tribes have settled their disputes with the sword and 
the gun. ‘So no one can tell of how people have lived 
without telling of how they have fought. 

The Country in War.—There was fighting enough 
around Boston. A hard battle took place at Bunker Hill, 
near the town, in which the British learned again that the 
Americans could fight. The men in arms were the men 
of New England, but the rest of the people of the country 
were quite as ready to fight. Congress soon met again. 
This time it did not send letters to the king, but it made 
ready to fight for liberty. 

Washing-ton in Command.—While this was going on 
George Washington was part of the time on his farm at 
Mount Vernon looking after his fields and keeping his men 
at work and part of the time in Congress. But the fight 
at Lexington made him a soldier again, for when Congress 
asked him to be the general-in-chief of all the armies, he 
was ready to go to war for his country and his home. He 
took command of the army under a great elm-tree in the 
town of Cambridge, near Boston, and soon began to dr.ll 
the men and make soldiers out of farmers. 

The British Leave Boston.—One dark night he built a 
fort on a hill that looked down on Boston. When the 


154 


THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


British woke the next morning they opened their eyes wide, 
for they saw cannon on the hill above them and men be¬ 
hind the cannon. They did not like to climb this hill, as 
they had done at Bunker Hill. But they had to climb it or 
leave Boston, so they got on their ships and sailed away. 
No British army ever came to Boston town after that day. 
Washington had done his work well. 

The Declaration.—Soon after this a great event took 
place. You should know what it was, for you celebrate it 
every year with fireworks when the 4th of July comes 
round. It is called by the long name of the Dec-la-ra'tion 
of In-de-pen'dence. This means that the Congress of 
the colonies declared, or said, that these colonies were 
independent, or free, from British rule. It said that this 
was a free country, with its own laws and its own gov¬ 
ernment, and that no king should ever make laws for 
it or tax it again. This great paper was written by 
Thomas Jefferson, with the help of Benjamin Franklin 
and John Adams, and was passed by Congress on the 
4th of July, 1776. For this reason the 4th of July has 
ever since been kept as the national holiday of the 
United States. 

Tidings of Joy.—When the Declaration was passed the 
great bell in the old State House at Philadelphia rang out 
loud and clear. It told the people that they were free, for 
on it were the words “ Proclaim liberty throughout the 
land.” Everywhere the people were full of joy when they 

heard what had been done. In New York they pulled 

155 


THE DAWN OF LIBERTY 


down the statue of King George and threw it into the dust 
of the streets. They did not know what dark days lay 



INDEPENDENCE HALL AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION. 


before them, but they knew that they had the hearts to 
fight until freedom was gained. 


Tell the story of— 

1. The light in the steeple and Paul Revere’s ride. 

2. What took place at Lexington and Concord. 

3. The British retreat. 

4. How the farmers came to Boston. 

5. How Washington took command. 

6. Why the British left Boston. 

7. The Declaration of Independence. 

Dates to be remembered : April 19, 1775; 4th of July, 1776. 


156 








WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION. 

The Revolution.—Do I hear some one ask, What is a 
revolution (rev-o-lu'shun) ? Well, this is a word that 
means more than one thing. One of the things it means 
is a great change in a government. By the American Revo¬ 
lution we mean that this country became free from the rule 
of England, and its people began to make all their own 
laws. But England was not willing to let them go, and 
they had to fight for their freedom. This fighting is called 
the Re-vo-lu'tion-a-ry War. General George Washington 
was at the head of the American army, and to this great 
soldier and his men we owe the freedom we now enjoy. 

Hope and Fear.—It was a long and dreadful war, and 
hundreds of poor soldiers died for their country. Some¬ 
times it was thought that all was lost, and that we would 
have to give up to stubborn King George. Then again all 
looked bright and hope came back to men’s hearts. The 
war went on for seven long years, until men and women 
prayed for peace and wept for their poor country. But 
Washington never lost hope. He fought on and on until 
the British took their soldiers away and left this country 
free. 

The Loss of New York.—For a time all things seemed 
to go wrong. After the British left Boston Washington led 
his army to New York. But the British came there in a 
great fleet of ships, and landed so many soldiers that the 
Americans were beaten in battle and had to march out of 


157 


WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


the city and let them march in. Washington had only a 
little army and the British had a big and strong one, so the 
Americans could do nothing but retreat when the British 
came against them. They marched across the State of 
New Jersey and crossed the Delaware River, with the 
British close after them. The British could not cross the 
river, for Washington had taken all the boats; so the two 
armies settled down on the two sides of the river to pass 
the winter. There they lay, looking across at each other, 
but with the wide water between. 

Crossing- the Icy Delaware.—The British generals felt 
sure that when spring came they would soon put an end 



WASHINGTON’S ARMY CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 


to the American army and make King George master 
again. They did not know the kind of man they had 

to deal with. Washington did not wait for spring, but 

158 












WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


crossed the river again when the ice was floating down 
in great blocks, and the air was full of falling snow, and 
the winds were biting cold. Before the British knew that 
the Americans were on the march they found them in 
their camp. 

A Christmas at Trenton.—It was the night of Christmas 
of the year 1776. In the town of Trenton there were a 
large number of German soldiers. King George, you must 
know, had not British soldiers enough to fight his battles 
and had hired some from Germany. These Germans were 
having a good time that Christmas-day, while the poor 
Americans were marching through the snow. They ate 
their Christmas dinner, and drank their beer, and smoked 
their pipes, and went to bed. Very likely they thought that 
the Americans were wishing they had as good a dinner on 
the other side. 

The March of the Americans.—They did not know 
that the hungry Americans were crossing the river through 
the ice and snow and marching down to Trenton in their 
thin clothes and worn-out shoes. Some of them left marks 
of blood on the ground from their feet, and two of them 
were frozen to death. But they set their teeth, and 
clinched their muskets, and marched on through the dark 
and cold night. 

The Yankees at Trenton.—The next morning the Ger¬ 
mans at Trenton were roused from sleep by shots and 
shouts, and Washington and his men came rushing into the 

town. Before many of them had time to seize their guns 

159 


WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


the ragged Yankees were all around them, and a thousand 
of them were prisoners of war. Only a few of them es¬ 
caped, and these ran to tell the British commanders what 

the Yankees had done. 

The Battle of Princeton.—There was 
no more chasing of Washington. He 
took his share in the chasing after that. 
In a few days he won another battle at 
Princeton, and then settled down in the 
hills of New Jersey. The British could 
come and fight him there if they wanted 
to; but they did not want to, they had 
enough for that-winter. 

Valley Forge.—The next year the British set out in ships 
and landed an army which took possession of the city of 
Philadelphia. Washing¬ 
ton and his army were 
driven back, and they 
spent the next winter in 
a dismal way. They 
were in camp at Valley 
Forge, a place not far 
from Philadelphia. Here 
they had not half enough 
to eat or to wear, and 
had poor huts to live in, and the winter was bitter cold, so 
that when spring came many of them had died. 

Burgoyne and Franklin.—But the poor American sol- 

160 



WASHINGTON’S HEAD-QUARTERS AT VALLEY 
FORGE. 



REVOLUTIONARY 

SOLDIER. 












WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


diers had some good news to keep up their spirits. The 
large British army under General Burgoyne (Bur-goin'), 



which was marching down 
from Canada to New York, was 
caught in a sort of trap by the 
Americans, and before they 
could get away were all taken 
prisoners. This was great 
news to Dr. Franklin, who was 
then in Paris, the capital of 


IN CAMP AT VALLEY FORGE. 


France. He went to the French king and told him all about 
it, and the king, who did not like the English, said he would 
help the Americans with ships and money and men. 

What the Good News Did.—The soldiers at Valley 
Forge did not mind the cold when they heard this. The 
good news warmed them up like a fire. But the British in 
Philadelphia did not like the news. They were afraid they 

might get caught in a trap as General Burgoyne had been, 

161 


11 

















WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


and they left the city in a great hurry. The Americans 
marched in, and soon were chasing them back across New 
Jersey. 

Arnold Turns Traitor.—After that there was much fight¬ 
ing in the South. First the British had the best of it, and 
then the Americans. But a very bad thing happened on 
the Hudson River in New York State. Here there was a 
strong fort named West Point, which was in the care of 
General Arnold, a brave soldier, who had fought well for 
the American cause. He now turned traitor and tried to 
give up the fort to the British, but he was found out and 
had to flee. Afterwards he fought against his own country¬ 
men ; but everybody despised him and he died in shame 
and disgrace. 

Cornwallis at Yorktown.—At length Lord Corn-wal'lis, 
one of the British generals in the South, marched north to 

Virginia. He wanted help 
from New York, and he went 
with his army to Yorktown, 
a town on the coast, so that 
the British ships might bring 
him men and supplies. But 
instead of British ships, a fleet 
of French ships came and cut 
him off from the sea. 

Washington’s March 
South.—General Washington, you may be very sure, knew 
well all that was going on north and south. When he 

162 



FRENCH ^ 

BATTERYJJ 

W 

\ Swampy 

>-^3' \ * Place of 

Surrender —@==^->3 

ARTU-LE^ f AMER'CM * 1 

x \ F* 

Headquarters ( Headquarters of 

of t Gen. Knox 

Gen. Washington 


SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. 








WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


found where Lord Cornwallis was it did not take him long 
to make up his mind what to do. He was in front of New 
York, but he left there so quickly that he was far south 
before the British knew he was gone. 

He had with him his old men, whose patched clothes 
covered brave hearts, and also some soldiers who had been 
sent over from France. Washington’s first fighting had 
been against the French. Now they had come to his help, 
for they were always ready to fight the British. 



SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. 


The Surrender of Cornwallis.— The Americans were 
soon in front of Yorktown, and had cut off the escape of 

the British by land. The French fleet cut off their escape 

163 









WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION 


by sea. And the cannon roared and thundered and their 
balls battered the town until Lord Cornwallis could hold 
out no longer. He gave up himself and his army as pris¬ 
oners of war. 

The News Reaches Philadelphia. —Then to the north 
rode men at full speed, bringing to Congress the news of the 
great victory. It was past midnight when they reached the 
Quaker City. Soon after the voice of the watchman could 
be heard crying out, “ Past two o’clock and Cornwallis is 
taken!” It was not long before the empty streets were 
filled with men, and shouts and hurrahs were waking all 
the sleepy heads. And the next day the old liberty bell 
clanged out the glad news. It is said that the old door¬ 
keeper of Congress died of joy, but most of the people 
danced and sang and were very happy. 

Washington as President.—That was the end of the 
war. The British had enough of it, and soon took away 

their soldiers and left this country free. 
Washington went back to his farm at 
Mount Vernon, where he hoped to 
spend the rest of his life in peace. But 
not many years passed before he was 
chosen as the first President of the 
United States. Eight years he served 
as President and then went once more 
to his farm. Soon after he died. The 
whole country mourned him as the greatest man America 
had ever known. 



WASHINGTON. 


164 


BETSY ROSS AND THE FLAG 


Tell in your own words— 

1. What is a revolution. 

2. How the British took New York. 

3. What Washington did on Christmas-day. 

4. The story of Valley Forge. 

5. How Borgoyne and his army were captured. 

6. What Arnold tried to do. 

7. How Cornwallis was trapped at Yorkt.own. 

8. The coming of the good news. 

9. What else Washington did. 


BETSY ROSS AND THE FLAG. 

The Nation’s Flag.—Whatever else a nation has, it wants 
a flag. The flag flies over it in peace and in war, on land 
and on sea, on school-house and ship, as the emblem of 
liberty. There is nothing men are more proud of and will 
do more to preserve, and many a brave 
man has lost his life in trying to save his 
country’s flag. 

The Rattlesnake Flag.—When the 
colonies went to war for their liberty 
they had no flag. Before that time they 
had used the British flag. Now they 
wanted one of their own, and soon several kinds of flags 
were made. One was used in Virginia in 1775 which had 
on it a figure of a rattlesnake and the words, “ Don’t tread 
on me !” On the other side were the words, “ Liberty or 
Death!” 



RATTLESNAKE FLAG. 


165 






BETSY ROSS AND THE FLAG 



PINE-TREE FLAG. 


The Pine-Tree and New Moon Flag's.—About the same 
time the ships that left Boston harbor carried a white flag 

with a green pine-tree in its centre. Its 
motto was “ An Appeal to Heaven.” 
Another flag was raised on Fort Sullivan, 
in the harbor of Charleston. This was 
blue, with the white figure of a new 
moon in the corner, and the word 
“ Liberty.” 

The Flag of Stripes.—When Washington took command 
of the army at Cambridge, he used a flag that had thirteen 
red and white stripes. In the corner was the “ Union Jack,” 
which forms part of the British flag. This meant that the 
thirteen colonies were still a part of the British Kingdom. 
It is said that one flag was shown in which a rattlesnake 
crossed the thirteen stripes. The Americans wanted to 
show the British that they were as dangerous as the 
rattlesnake, which is only found in America. 

What Congress Did.—You may see that a number of 
flags were tried before the flag of the United States was 
made. Congress had to say what that flag should be, and 
it was not until 1777 that Congress got ready to choose a 
flag. It is interesting to know how this was done. 

Betsy Ross. —In a house on Arch Street, in Philadelphia, 
lived a woman named Elizabeth Ross, though people called 
her Betsy Ross. Her husband had an up-hol'ste-ry store,— 
that is, he made hangings for beds and covers for furniture. 
After he died his wife carried on the business for herself. 


166 



BETSY ROSS AND THE FLAG 


Washington and the Flag Committee.—One day in 
May there came into her little shop a number of men who 
fisked her to do something for them. One of these men 
was General Washington, who had come to Philadelphia 
from his army. The others were members of Congress. 
They wanted her to make them a sample flag, and Wash¬ 
ington told her how it was to be made. 

The Stripes and Stars.—He wanted thirteen stripes to 
stand for the thirteen colonies, as he had used in his flag 
at Cambridge. These were to be red and white. But in 
place of the British 44 Union Jack,” he wanted a blue corner 
with thirteen white stars. Betsy Ross was a pretty young 
woman, with bright, sparkling eyes. She was quick to see 
what was wanted, and was not long in making the first 
American flag. Congress adopted it on June 17, 1777. 
Everybody that saw it 
hailed it with praise. The 
United States of America 
had at last a flag of its 
own. 

The Flag first Shown. 

-—The first ship to show 
this flag at its mast-head 
was the “ Ranger,” under 
the famous captain John 
Paul Jones. It was first 
raised on land on the walls of Fort Schuyler (ski'ler), on 
the Mohawk River, New York, where some Americans 

167 



UNITED STATES FLAG. 








BETS! ROSS AND THE FLAG 


were surrounded by British and Indians. Their flag was 
a rough one, made of pieces of a blue jacket and a white 
shirt, and some bits of red flannel. But under it five 
British flags which had been taken were hung upside- 
down, so that the first flag waved in honor. 

The Stars and Stripes.—Since then the stripes have been 
kept the same, but a star has been added for every new 
State, so that there are now forty-eight stars on the flag. 
You may see this flag flying over your school-house, and 
must feel proud of the country that has so beautiful a 
standard. 

Betsy Ross Pilgrims.—If you live in Philadelphia, or 
should visit that city, you may go to the Betsy Ross house, 
No. 239 Arch Street, and see the place where the first flag 
was made. Every year, on Flag Day, June 14, many school 
children go like young pilgrims to that house, where they 
are received with a hearty welcome and are given little 
flags to remind them of the sample flag made by the 
nimble fingers of Betsy Ross. 

Many fine poems have been written about the American 
flag, and this seems a good place to give some of them. 
Here is a verse from a poem written by Oliver Wendell 
Holmes: 

Up with our banner bright, 

Sprinkled with starry light, 

Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore. 

While through the sounding sky 
Loud rings the nation’s cry— 

Union and liberty! One evermore ■ 

168 


BETSY ROSS AND THE FLAG 


And here is one by J. Rodman Drake: 

Flag of the free heart’s hope and home, 

By angel hands to valor given; 

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 

Forever float that standard sheet! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 

With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom’s banner streaming o’er us? 

Now you may like to read a verse from the song of “ The 
Star-Spangled Banner.” 

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro’ the perilous fight, 

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming; 
And the rocket’s red giare, the bombs bursting in air, 

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; 

Oh, say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave 
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave ? 

ttnd this is for our little boys and girls: 

The stars and stripes a hundred years 
Have floated towards the sky. 

We will be proud of our country’s flag, 

And love it till we die. 

Our country is the fairest land 
On which the sun shines down; 

Our flag is loved three thousand miles, 

In country and in town. 

169 


DANIEL BOONE 


From city homes and country homes, 

From mountain and from plain 
We hear the echoes of our praise 
And praise our flag again. 

Tell the story of the American flag as you remember it: 

1. What were the first flags used? 

2. Where did Betsy Ross live ? 

3. What was she asked to do ? 

4. Where was the flag first shown ? 

5. What else can you say about the American flag? 

¥¥ 

DANIEL BOONE. 

A Famous Hunter.—You have been told of how the 
Indians lived in the woods, hunted game, and tried to 
drive away the white men, many of whom became great 
hunters. But you will know all this better if I tell you 
the story of one famous hunter and about how he lived 
among the Indians and made many wonderful escapes. 
This man’s name was Daniel Boone. His life is part of 
the history of our country, for he had much to do with 
settling the great West. 

A Little Runaway.—Daniel Boone was a Pennsylvania 
boy. Thick woods grew all round his father’s farm, and 
these were full of game, so that he began to use a gun when 
he was a little boy, and he grew to love the woods as if 
they were his home. One day he went out hunting and did 

not come back. His father and the people who lived near 

170 


DANIEL BOONE 


by looked for him for two or three days, and then they found 
him in the woods toasting a piece of meat over a tire which 
he had made. He had built himself a little hut of sods 
and boughs, and had hung around this the skins of the 
animals he had killed. The little runaway was trying to 
live like an Indian. 


Moving* to North Carolina.—When the part of the coun¬ 
try where the Boones lived began to be settled, they moved 
to North Carolina. They did not like too many people 
around them. They went to a place in the deep woods, 
and here Mr. Boone and his older 
sons cleared a farm and built a 
house, while Daniel, who was 
then thirteen years old, hunted 
in the woods and brought them 
game to eat. Once he came near 
shooting a girl who lived in the 
nearest house, and whose eyes 
shone in the dark by the light of 
his torch, so that he thought she 

was a deer. When Daniel Boone shot he did not often 
miss his aim. But by good luck he did not shoot this time, 
and the girl afterwards became his wife. 

A Mountain Wall.—After Daniel Boone grew up and 
got married to the girl he came so near shooting he went 
still deeper into the woods, and built himself a new home 
near the great mountains which rise like a mighty wall far 

back from the coast. He could not help wondering what 

171 



DANIEL BOONE. 



DANIEL BOONE 


lay on the other side of those great hills. No white man 
had ever crossed them, and he made up his mind to do 
so. He knew there must be wild Indians and wild beasts 
there, but he was not afraid of any living thing, so he threw 
his gun over his shoulder and began to climb the rough 
mountains. After going far he came to the country we now 
call Tennessee. 

Boone Kills a Bear.—He found plenty of game there and 
hunted bears and other animals. We know that he killed 
at least one bear, for he wrote this down in his own way, 
and the writing can be read to-day. On the bark of a 
beech-tree that still stands on the banks of Boone’s Creek, in 
East Tennessee, are these words, cut with his hunting-knife: 

“ D. Boon killed a bar on [this] tree in the year 1760.” 

He could not spell very well, you may see, but he could 
kill bears, and that was better for him. 

The Indian Hunting-Ground.—Nine years afterwards 
Boone went across the mountains again. This time he 
went into Kentucky, which lies north of Tennessee, and 
was then a great hunting- and fighting-ground for the In¬ 
dians. Here he saw and shot buffaloes, which he had never 
seen before, and he saw more of the Indians than he liked. 
There were five men with him, but soon he was the only 
one left, and he lived alone until some other men came 
over the mountains. 

An Escape from the Indians.—One day a party of In¬ 
dians took him prisoner, with another man named Stewart. 
The Indians kept them for a week, taking them from place 


DANIEL BOONE 



to place and watching them closely, but one night, when 
they were all sound asleep, Boone thought it was a good 
time to leave them. He sat up. An Indian moved and he 
lay down again. Soon he sat up again. They now lay 
still and seemed to be all asleep, so he wakened Stewart. 
They picked up two guns, and slipped quietly away. The 
Indians must have been very angry when they woke up and 
found their prisoners gone. Soon after that Stewart was 
shot by the Indians and Boone was again left alone. 

A Grape-Vine Swing.—The lone hunter had many ad¬ 
ventures with the Indians. Once a party of them were on 
his trail, following him as a dog follows a deer. Every foot¬ 
print he made was plain to their sharp eyes, and they kept 
close on his track. But after a while he saw a long grape¬ 
vine hanging from a high tree, and he caught hold of this 
and* gave himself a great swing, and then ran on again. 
When the In¬ 
dians came to 
that spot they 
could not find 
any more foot¬ 
marks, so Boone 
got away. 

The Wilder¬ 
ness Road.—In THE HOME OF THE PIONEER. 


1775, the year 

the Battle of Lexington was fought, Boone crossed the 

mountains again. This time he had with him a party of 

173 












DANIEL BOONE 


thirty men. With their sharp axes they cut down trees 
and bushes, until they had made a road through the forest 
about two hundred miles long, to the banks of the Ken¬ 
tucky River. Here they built a fort and houses inside it. 
They called the place Boonesboro’. The road was called 
the “ Wilderness Road,” and thousands of men and 
women afterwards followed it into the wilds of the West. 
The Indians did not like to see this fort, and tried to kill 
the whites while they were building it, but Boone and his 
friends drove them away, and kept on until it was done. 

The Girl Captives.—When the fort was ready Boone’s 
wife and daughters came to where he was. They were the 
first white women in Kentucky. One day Boone’s young 
daughter and two other girls left the fort to pick some wild 
flowers, and some Indians who were hid in the bushes 
sprang out and carried them off. When they were missed 
there was much excitement in the fort, and everybody 
went out to seek them in the woods. The Indian tracks 
were found, and it was known that the savages had carried 
the poor girls away. 

How the Girls Marked their Trail.—Boone and his 
friends were soon on the trail of the Indians. . The savages 
were very cunning, but the girls were cunning, too. They 
broke off twigs from the bushes and threw them down to 
mark their track. An Indian caught one of them doing 
this, and said he would kill her if she did not stop. They 
then tore off little bits of their dresses and dropped these 

on the trail, so that their friends could see them. 

174 


DANIEL BOONE 


The Captives Rescued.—Boone and his backwoods 
friends followed the bits of stick and shreds of dress as 
easily as we would follow an open 
road. They came up to the Indians 
just as they were eating their sup¬ 
per. The hunters crept slyly up be¬ 
hind the trees and fired on them all 
together, and then ran forward with 
loud shouts. The Indians, except 
those who.had been shot, jumped 
up and ran for their lives, and the 
girls were taken back to the fort. 

They did not go out to pick wild 
flowers after that. 

Boone a Prisoner.—Boone did not 
always escape. Once when he was taken prisoner, he 
would have been burned alive if an old woman had not 
taken him for her son. The Indians then cut off all his 
hair but the scalp-lock, painted his face, and put on him an 
Indian dress. He stayed a long time with them, hunted 
for them, and let on to like their ways, so that they came 
to think they had made an Indian of him, and were proud 
to have so great a hunter among them. 

A Flight for Life.—But Boone found they were going to 
attack the fort at Boonesboro’, where his friends were, so 
one day he slipped out of the village and ran away. The 
Indians followed him, but he walked in the water to hide 

his tracks, and lived on roots and berries for fear they would 

175 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


hear his gun if he shot any game. At last he got back to the 
fort in safety. It was out of order, so he set the men to mend 
it and make it strong, for he knew the Indians would soon 
be there. When they came to take it they were beaten and 
driven off. 

More Elbow-Room.—We should like to tell more about 
Daniel Boone, for he had other adventures with the Indians 
and made more escapes from them. They could kill other 
white men, but they could not kill the great hunter of the 
West, and they came to think he had a magic life. In time 
so many people came into Kentucky that it got too crowded 
for Daniel Boone. He said he wanted “ elbow-room.” So 
he went farther west, out of the way of people. There he 
spent the rest of his life hunting, and did not die until he 
was a very old man. 

Tell what you know about— 

1. How little Daniel Boone went hunting. 

2. What he did in North Carolina. 

3. How he crossed the mountains to Tennessee and Kentucky. 

4. His escapes from the Indians. 

5. The wilderness road and the fort. 

6. The girl captives and their rescue. 

7. Boone’s life among the Indians and his escape. 

8. How he wanted elbow-room. 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. 

A Merry Dance.—There was once a fort in the far West 
where, one spring night, some soldiers were having a merry 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


time. These soldiers were French, and the French, you 
must know, are fond of music and dancing. So they had 
brought in all the girls of the village, and were dancing 
away at a lively rate to the music of a fiddle. The fiddler 
sat on a chair at the side, and on the floor near him lay an 
Indian who was looking at the dancers. Torches were 
stuck in the walls to light the room, and all were in the 
best of spirits. 

A Stranger at the Door.—When they were in the midst 
of their fun a tall young man came in and stood leaning 
against the side of the door, looking at the dance. He was 
dressed like a man of the backwoods, and any one could 
see he was not a Frenchman, but for a time no one noticed 
him. The Indian was the first to see him, and he sprang 
to his feet with a war-whoop that rang through the room. 
His sharp eyes had seen that this man was an American, and 
he knew that there must be something wrong. 

The Capture of the Fort.—In a minute the dance 
stopped and the men and girls all crowded together. The 
women, who had just been talking and laughing, now 
screamed with fright. The men ran for their guns. The 
stranger at the door did not move. He said to them in a 
quiet way, “Go on with your dance. But remember that 
you are dancing under Virginia and not under England.” 
The next minute a crowd of men dressed in the same way 
ran into the room with guns in their hands, and the fort 
was taken. 

The Indian Murders.—Now let us go back a little and 

177 


12 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


tell what all this meant. The name of the man who stood 
at the door was George Rogers Clark. He was a friend of 
Daniel Boone and a great hunter like him, and what he 
wanted to do was to stop the Indians from murdering the 
white settlers. A British officer at Detroit had hired them 
to do this, and the cruel savages were killing the people and 
burning their houses all along the borders. The British 
had forts in the western country, and they paid the Indians 
for this cruel work. 

Clark’s Expedition.—Young Clark went to Patrick Henry, 
who was Governor of Virginia, and asked him for men 
and xnoney. He wanted to take the British forts and 

t 

stop the murder of the settlers. The governor gave him 
all he asked for, and in the spring of 1778 he started down 
the Ohio River with about one hundred and fifty men. 
They went in boats, floating down the river for nearly a 
thousand miles. The fort they wanted to take was called 
Fort Kas-kas'ki-a. It lay a hundred miles from the Ohio, 
and the British thought it so safe that they had left a French 
officer and some French settlers to take care of it. 

Through the Woods.—Colonel Clark and his men had 
to go through thick woods, full of bushes and briers, to 
reach the fort. But they were old hunters and used to the 
woods, and they kept on until, one night, they came near 
enough to hear the fiddle and the dancing. Clark walked 
into the open door to look at them, and I have told how 
he stopped the dance. 

How Fort Vincennes was Won.—There was another 

178 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


fort called Fort Vincennes (vin-senz'), that lay about one 
hundred and fifty miles to the east of Fort Kaskaskia. 
Clark wanted to take this fort also, but he did not have 
men enough. So he sent a French priest to the fort to tell 
the French, who held it for the British, that it was the 
Americans, and not the British, who were their best friends. 
When the French at the fort heard this they hauled down 
the British flag and hoisted the stars and stripes. The 
French never liked the British, you know, and did not want 
to help them. 

The British Win it Back.—The next year Colonel Ham¬ 
ilton, the British officer who had hired the Indians to kill 
the American settlers, came down from Detroit and took 
the fort back again. This news was brought to Colonel 
Clark, and he made up his mind that the British should not 
keep that fort. Hamilton had only about eighty men. Clark 
had two hundred. He had no money to oay his men, it is 
true, but a merchant of St. Louis offered to lend him all he 
needed. So he set off on another long march. 

A March through the Rains.—The march to Fort Kas¬ 
kaskia had been made in the warm spring-time. But it was 
winter now, and the weather was bleak and cold. Rain 
came down fast as the men trudged onward, so that they 
were wet to the skin every night, and they had to build 
great fires to warm themselves and dry their clothes. But 
they did not mind the cold and the rain very much, for they 
were used to rough weather and had plenty of deer and 
buffalo meat to eat. 


179 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


The Rivers Overflow.—The second week of their march 
they had a harder time. They now reached a place where 
there was nothing but water to be seen. It had rained so 
much that all the rivers were full and the water had flowed 
over the banks and lay three or four feet deep over most 
of the country. They could not get to the fort without 
wading for many miles through this deep water. 

A Long, Cold Wade.—I am sure that none of us would 
have liked such a wade, for the water was cold as ice. 
Clark’s men did not like it a bit, but he told them he was 
going ahead and they must go, too, so in they went, holding 
their guns and powder-horns up above their heads to keep 
them dry. For a whole week they went on. Some of the 
ground was above the water, but often they had to wade 
waist deep, and sometimes up to their necks in the freezing 
water. Now and then one of them would stumble and fall. 
He would come up with muddy water dripping from his 
head, and often would have to dive again for his gun. It 
was hard, too, to get anything to eat, and for two whole 
days they had to go hungry. 

Four Miles of Water.—At length they came near the 

fort. But now they had the worst wade of all. Here lay 

a great sheet of water four miles wide and quite deep. 

They could see that it was cold enough to freeze, and a 

shiver ran through them as they looked at it. Some of 

them held back, but Clark told them that they must follow 

him and he walked boldly into the cold water. He told one 

of his officers to shoot the first man who would not follow, 

180 


GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


so they all plunged in. No doubt they thought it was better 
to shiver than be shot. 

The Men Warmed up Again.—They all got across, 
but you never saw such a shivering party. Their teeth 
chattered, and 
some of them 
were so weak 
with the cold 
that they fell 
flat on the 
ground. They 
could not take 

another step. Colonel Clark set two of 
his men to pick up each of these worn- 
out ones and run them up and down on 
the ground until they were warm again. wading the swamp. 
This was just the thing to do, and in a little time they were 
all right. 

Taking the Fort.—When they were warm and had shot 
some game and cooked and eaten some food, they went on 
to the fort. They did not find it open and the soldiers 
dancing, as in the other fort, and had a hard fight to win 
it. But in the end the British gave it up and the American 
flag waved over it again. 

What Clark Won.—When the Indians found that the 
Americans had taken ihe British forts, they were glad 
enough to make peace and to stop their murders. Clark 

did a great work, for he gave us that whole country. When 

181 









GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 


the war was over the British wanted it back again, but the 
Americans said, we have won it and we will keep it, and 
they did keep it. 

The Settling- of Tennessee.—Thus while Daniel Boone 
was taking Kentucky from the Indians, George Rogers 
Clark was taking the country we now know as Indiana 
(in-de-an'a) and Illinois (il-lin-oi') from the British. At 
the same time another of Daniel Boone’s friends, and a 
great hunter like him, was settling what is now the State of 
Tennessee. His name was James Robertson, and he had 
to help him another brave man named John Sevier. 

The Country Spreads Westward.—It is well to remem¬ 
ber these four brave men, who crossed the wild mountains 
and in a few years took possession of a great country, which 
they added to the United States. When the war ended and 
a treaty of peace was made, this country got all the land, 
except Florida, as far back as the Mississippi. All on the 
other side of that great river was claimed by Spain, while 
Great Britain held Canada, the country north of the great 
lakes. 

Tell the story of— 

1. The dance in the fort and the stranger. 

2. What Colonel Clark set out to do. 

3. How Fort Vincennes was first taken. 

4. The march through the rain and the long wade. 

5. How they took the fort. 

6. What Colonel Clark won for the country. 

7 How the country spread westward. 

182 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 



PATRICK HENSY. 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON. 

Men of the Revolution.—You must not think that all 
the great men of this country were soldiers and fighters. 
There were men of peace who did as much, in their way, 
as the men of war. I cannot tell what 
they all did, for there were many of 
them, all doing the best they could for 
their country. One of them was named 
Samuel Adams. He led the people in 
Boston at the time of the stamp act 
and the Boston tea-party. Another 
was Patrick Henry, who stirred up all 
Virginia with his wonderful speeches. 

Still another was Thomas Paine, who wrote a book called 
“ Common Sense,” which showed the people that they had 
a right to be free. Another was Robert Morris, who raised 

money for the country when its purse 
was empty. These are a few of those 
who worked for the freedom of our 
land. 

What Jefferson Did.—You have 
been told how one of these great men, 
Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence, in which he said 
that “ all men are created equal,” and 
have the right to life and liberty. Jefferson, like Wash¬ 
ington, was born in Virginia, and he did much to make 

men equal in that State. There were some old English 

183 



<$L 

m 

m'* A 


THOMAS JEFFERSON. 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 


laws about property and religion which he did away with, 
and in that way he made men more equal. 

Jefferson and his Slaves.—Jefferson had a large estate 
in Virginia, with many negro slaves on it. But he treated 
them so well that they loved him like a father. Once 
when he came back from France they met him in his 
carriage when he was miles away and sang and shouted 
with delight. They wished to take the horses out of the 
carriage and draw it themselves, and when he got to the 
house they took him in their arms and carried him into the 
door, some of them laughing and some weeping for joy. 

Monticello.—Jefferson had a fine house which he called 
Monticello (mon-te-chel'lo). This means “ little mountain,” 
for it was built on a high hill with a flat top. He was gov¬ 
ernor of Virginia during part of the war, and the British 
wanted badly to get him in their hands, for they said that 
he was one of the worst of the rebels. They called all the 
Americans by this name. 

The Hiding of the Plate.—Once when he was at home, 
a troop of British horsemen came riding at great speed 
towards the house, and Jefferson had to flee in haste. Two 
of his slaves, named Martin and Caesar, tried to save the 
silver plate which was used on the dining-table. They took 
up a plank in the floor, and Caesar squeezed through the 
opening, while Martin handed him down the plate as 
quickly as he could. But the British came so fast that 
Martin got scared and pushed the plank back, leaving Caesar 

fast in the dark hole under the floor. There the poor 

184 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 



fellow lay for three days and nights with nothing to eat and 
not a ray of light, till the British left. He was half dead 
when Martin drew him out. But he would have died to 
save his master’s silverware. 

Jefferson in Office.—Jefferson spent many years in the 
service of his country. For five years he lived in France, 


IN A COLONIAL MANOR-HOUSE. 


as Minister of the United States. 

For some years he was Secretary 
of State, and was afterwards 
Vice-President. In 1800 he was 
elected President, and held this 
office for eight years. 

A Plain President.— Jefferson did not believe in pomp 
and show. He lived in a simple way and did not like cere¬ 
mony. When he was made President he put on no more 

airs than when he was living at home. It is said that when 

185 















































































JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 


he went to take the oath of office he rode to the capitol on 
horseback and hitched his horse to the fence; or, as some 
say, he walked there on foot. And he did not hide himself 
away from people. Any one could see him, and he would 
talk to them as simply as if he was of no more account 
than they. 

A Great Purchase.—You may want to know what Jef¬ 
ferson did while he was President. He did one very im¬ 
portant thing. I have told you that Spain owned all the 
country west of the Mississippi. Spain gave all this coun¬ 
try, which went as far west as the Rocky Mountains, to 
France, and Jefferson bought it from France. It was a 
great country, larger than all the rest of the United States 
at that time. Since then it has been cut up into many 
States. 

The Mouth of the Mississippi.—What Jefferson wanted 
to buy was New Orleans, a city which stands on the Mis¬ 
sissippi River, near its mouth. The people of the West 
did not like to see the mouth of their great river held by 
the Spanish or the French, who would be able to say, if 
they chose, that no ships but their own should go down 
the river to the sea. They wanted the whole river, even 
if they had to fight for it; but it was much better to get it 
in a peaceful way, as Jefferson did. 

The Journey of Lewis and Clark.—President Jefferson 
wished to know what kind of a country it was he had 
bought, so he sent out two men, named Lewis and Clark, to 

travel through it, which no white man had done before. 

186 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 


They went on until they came to the Pacific Ocean and 
then came back again over the same country. The whole 
distance travelled by them was over eight thousand miles, 
and it took them two years and a half. They had many 
strange things to tell when they came back. They had seen 
many tribes of Indians of whom nothing was known, and 
had crossed a great range of mountains, and gone down 



A HERD OF BUFFALOES. 


long rivers. And they had seen vast herds of buffaloes, 
miles in length, with many other wild animals. 

Alexander Hamilton.—There was one other great man 
of that time of whom something should be said. This was 
Alexander Hamilton. He was born in the West Indies and 
came to this country when he was a boy. Before he grew 
to be a man he was made a captain in the army, and he 
afterwards became secretary to General Washington. 

The Public Purse.—Hamilton was a great thinker, and 

wrote many papers on the state of the country which are 

187 


JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 


still read and admired. When Washington was made 
President, he chose Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury.* 
At that time the country was very poor. A great deal of 
money was owing to the old soldiers of the Revolution, and 
there was nothing to pay them with and very little to pay 
the costs of the government. Hamilton was the man for 
the place. He soon managed to get plenty of money, so 
that the soldiers could be paid and the government have 
what cash it needed. 

How Hamilton Died.—No man did more for the young 
country than Alexander Hamilton. But he did not live 

to enjoy the honor he had earned. 
He was drawn into a duel with a 
man named Aaron Burr and was 
shot dead. It was a sad ending to a 
noble life. 

A Strange Circumstance.— 

Thomas Jefferson lived to be an old 
man, and died on the 4th of July, 
1826, exactly fifty years after the 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

Declaration of Independence was 
adopted. It is a strange thing that John Adams, one of 
those who helped to prepare the Declaration, and who also 
had been President of the United States, died on the same 
day. 

* Secretary of the Treasury: The man chosen by the President to 
take care of the money raised for the government by the taxes and in 
other ways. 



188 



HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 


Give the names of— 

1. Some of the great men of the Revolution. 

2. Tell about Jefferson and his slaves. 

3. How Jefferson acted as President. 

4. What great purchase he made. 

5. The journey of Lewis and Clark. 

6. What did Hamilton do for the country. 

7. When did Jefferson and Adams die. 

¥¥ 

HARRISON AND TECUMSEH. 

How the Indians have been Treated.—We may be glad 
that we are white, and that this great country belongs to us 
and our people ; but we cannot help feeling some pity for the 
poor red men, who once owned all this land, and who have 
been pushed back until now they own hardly any of it. 
The red men were bold and brave, and fought hard for 
their homes, but step by step the white men drove them 
back and took the land. 

How the Indians Fought.—I have told you what the 
Indians were like and how they lived. And I have said 
something about their wars with the whites. When the 
white settlers began to go west, along the Ohio, they came 
into a country filled with Indians, who were very fierce and 
savage. They hated these strangers who were coming to 
drive them from their villages and fields, and killed all they 
could of them. When they went down the river in boats 
the Indians fired at them from the woods on the banks, and 
when an army was sent against them under General St. 

Clair they drove the soldiers back with great loss of life. 

189 


HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 


Wayne and Harrison.—General Wayne, a brave soldier 
of the Revolution, was then sent against them. He de¬ 
feated them so badly that they were 
glad enough to make peace and give 
up some of their land. One of the 
officers in Wayne’s army was named 
William Henry Harrison. On the side 
of the Indians was a brave warrior 
named Te-cum'seh. At that time 
these were both young men, but they 
were to be enemies and to fight bat¬ 
tles with each other in later years. 

The Plan of Tecumseh.— Tecum sell got to be a great 
leader among the Indians. He told them that it was wrong 
to sell their land to the whites, and he tried to get all the 
tribes to join together and drive the strangers from the 
country. He went far to the north and the west and the 
south, and talked wisely to the leaders of the tribes, and 
got many of them to agree with him in his plan. 

How the Houses Pell.—In one village of the South the 
chiefs would not agree to join him. This made him angry 
and he told them that when he got back to Detroit he would 
stamp his foot on the ground and the houses in their village 
would fall. Soon afterwards there was an earthquake and 
some of their houses fell down. The Indians were greatly 
scared, and said, “ Tecumseh has stamped his foot. He is 
a great magician, and we must join him against the pale¬ 
faces.” 



ANTHONY WAYNE. 


190 


HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 


A False Prophet.—Tecumseh had a brother who was an 
Indian prophet, or one who said he could tell what would 
happen in the future. He said to the red men, “ Stop drink¬ 
ing fire-water and you will be strong enough to kill all the 
pale-faces; when you have killed them I will bless the 
earth. I will make your pumpkins (pump'kins) grow to 
be as big as wigwams, and will make the ears of corn so 
large that one of them will make a dinner for a dozen 
hungry men. 11 

Harrison’s March.—William Henry Harrison was gov¬ 
ernor of the western country at that time. He saw that 
the Indians were getting ready to go 
to war and tried to stop them. When 
he found that he could not do it, and 
that they were dancing the war-dance 
in their villages, he started to meet them 
with a body of soldiers. He kept on 
until he was near an Indian village 
called Tippecanoe (tip-pe-ka-noo'), 
and here the soldiers went to sleep in 
their camp in the woods. 

The Sacred Beans.—Tecumseh was away in the South, 
but the Prophet was in the village, where he had gathered 
the Indians to fight. He showed them some beans, and 
said, “These are sacred beans. Touch them, and no 
white man’s bullet can hit you. 11 The Indians crowded up 
to touch the magic beans. 

The Prophet’s Plan.—“Now, 11 he said, “take your 

191 



WILLIAM HENRY 
HARRISON. 


HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 


tomahawks and your guns, and creep through the tall grass 
till you get to the edge of the woods. You will find the 
soldiers fast asleep, and you can jump among them and 
scatter them like so many rabbits. ,, 

A Night Alarm.—It was near morning, and General 
Harrison was putting on his boots in his tent and getting 
ready to go out and waken up the army, when he heard a 
shot followed by an Indian war-whoop. One of the sen¬ 
tries had seen the tall grass wave as the Indians crept 
through it. He fired into the grass, and the warriors sprang 
up with their wild cries. 

The Indians Defeated.—The soldiers jumped up and 
ran for their guns, and they put out their camp-fires so that 
the Indians could not see them. There was a hard battle 
in the darkness, but in the end the white men won, and the 
Indians were driven back. Their village was set on fire and 
burned to the ground. After that the Indians would not 
believe in the Prophet and his wonderful stories about 
beans and pumpkins and corn. 

What Tecumseh Did.—Tecumseh had given the Indians 
of the South bundles of sticks painted red. They were to 
throw away one stick every day, and when the last stick 
was gone they were to attack the white men. But when he 
got back and found that his brother had spoiled his plans 
by fighting too soon he was very angry. He seized the 
Prophet by his long hair and shook him till the teeth rat¬ 
tled in his head. It was too late now to do anything, for 
the whites were armed and ready. 

192 


HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 


War with England.—Now we must stop to say some¬ 
thing about another war. For many years England had 
been at war with France, and British war-ships had been 
stopping our merchant vessels at sea and taking men out of 
them to help them fight their battles. This made the Amer¬ 
icans very angry. There were other things they did not 
like, and war began between England and the United States. 
The most of the fighting was cn the border of Canada, for 
the British soldiers were sent to that country. 

The Death of Teoumseh.—Tecumseh joined the British 
and was made a general in their army. Harrison was at 

the head of the American 
army. The two armies met 
in Canada in the year 1813 
and there was a battle in 
which Tecumseh was killed 
and the British were defeated. 
Proctor, their general, ran 
away like a coward. He 
had been so cruel to prison¬ 



ers that he was afraid to fall into 
American hands. 

Harrison is Made President.— 
General Harrison did not do much 

BATTLE-FIELDS ON THE NIAGARA. fighting> Re Hved simp l e 

way as a farmer for many years afterwards, but he was 
thought so much of by the people that in 1840 they 

elected him President of the United States. They called 

193 


13 






















ANDREW JACKSON 


him the Hero of Tippecanoe, and also the man of the log 
cabin, on account of the simple way in which he lived. He 
was President for only a month, when he died. 

Tell about— 

1. How the Indians fought for their lands. 

2. The plan of Tecumseh. 

3. What the prophet said to the Indians. 

4. The battle of Tippecanoe. 

5. Tecumseh and the prophet. 

6. The war with England and how Tecumseh died. 


¥¥ 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

A Little Irish Boy.—At the time that Daniel Boone 
made his first trip over the mountains, there lived not very 
far away from him a little boy that I must tell you about. 
This boy grew to be talked of by everybody, to win great 
battles, and to live in the White House as President. His 
name was Andrew Jackson, and his father was a poor Irish 
farmer who died when he was only a baby. 

A Brave Young* American.—Andrew was a brave little 
fellow, who was ready to do any bold thing and to fight any 
boy that laughed at him. The school-boys thought it best 
to let him alone. He was only thirteen years old when the 
war of the Revolution began, but he was old enough to 

make swords or spears in the blacksmith-shops for the sol- 

194 


ANDREW JACKSON 


diers, and he did some fighting himself when he got older. 
Once he was taken prisoner by the British, and an officer 
told him to clean his boots. Andrew told him he was a 
prisoner and not a servant and he would not do it. The 
officer was so angry that he struck him on the head with 
his sword, and made a scar which stayed there as long as 
he lived. 

What Jackson Did.—When Andrew Jackson grew up 
to manhood he did many things. He kept a store, he 
studied law, he became a judge, and he was sent to Con¬ 
gress. But he Avas best known as a soldier. He fought 
both against the Indians and the British, and in all his 
fighting he never lost a battle. 

An Indian Massacre.—You have been told how Tecum* 
seh tried to stir up the Indians of the 
South to war. They did not begin to 
fight until after Tecumseh Avas dead, 
but then they attacked a place named 
Fort Minims in Avhich there Avere four 
hundred men, women, and children. 

The fort Avas burned and all the people 
in it Avere killed. 

Jackson and his Men.—Jackson Avas 
then living in Tennessee. The people there thought a 
great deal of him, for they kneAV he Avas a brave man, and 
when he asked them to take their arms and follow him 
against the Indian murderers, he soon had a large force. 

But their food ran out on the march, and the rough men, 

195 



ANDREW JACKSON. 


ANDREW JACKSON 


who had always done what they pleased, said they would 
go home again. They did not know Jackson. He stood 
in the road with a pistol in his hand and said he would 
shoot the first man that dared take a step towards home. 
They saw that he would do what he said, and none of 
them took the step. For once they could not do as they 
pleased. 

The Indians Beaten.—I cannot tell all that took place, 
for there was much fighting. Everywhere that Jackson 
met the Indians he defeated them, and he was so rapid and 
bold that they lost heart. A great battle was fought at a 
place called Horseshoe Bend, where the Indians fought on 
until there were not many of them left. They were not 
able to fight after that battle, and the war came to an end. 

A Brave Indian.—Soon afterwards Weathersford, the 
leader of the Indians, rode into the camp and up to the 
general’s tent. The soldiers hated him and called out, 
“Kill him!” “You may kill me if you want to,” he 
said to Jackson, “ but I came to tell you that our women 
and children are starving in the woods. They never did 
you any harm, and I beg you to send them food.” 

“You are a brave man,” cried Jackson. “They shall 
have food and you shall go free. I do not fight with women 
and children.” So he sent them corn, and the brave Indian 
was allowed to ride away as he had come. 

The War with England.—While this war was going on 
with the Indians in the South the war with England went 

on in the North. One British army took the city of Wash- 

196 


ANDREW JACKSON 


ington and set the Capitol,* where Congress met, and other 
buildings on fire. There were many battles on land and 
sea. For a long time the Americans did very poorly on 
land, and did not gain 
any victories till more 
than a year had passed. 

But their ships won 
many victories at sea, 
and the American navy 
gained great glory. 

When the war was very 
near its end a fleet of 
British vessels sailed to 
the south. It had an 
army on board, which was to be put on land and try to 
take the city of New Orleans. 

Jackson at New Orleans.—General Jackson had done 
so well in the war with the Indians that he was sent to 
New Orleans to keep the British from taking that city. 
Many of the bold hunters of the West came with him, 
bringing their well-tried old rifles, but he did not have 
nearly so many men as the English. So he took the pris¬ 
oners from the jail and the negroes from the streets and 
gave them guns. On one side was the Mississippi River 
and on the other was a swamp which no soldiers could 

* Capitol: The name of a building where a Legislature meets to 
make laws. The city wnere they meet is called the Capital. The 
Capitol at Washington is a very large and handsome building. 

197 














ANDREW JACKSON 


cross. There was a ditch from the river to the swamp, and 
alongside of this Jackson had a long and high bank of earth 
thrown up. 

Cotton Bales and Sugar Hogsheads.—Some of you 
may have heard that our men at New Orleans fought behind 
cotton bales. So they did at first, for Jackson was in such 
a hurry that he had bales 
of cotton taken from the 
warehouses and built into 
the earthworks. The Brit¬ 
ish were in as great haste, 
and took hogsheads of sugar 
from the sugar plantations 
and made a wall of 
them. But when the 
battle began the Brit¬ 
ish cannon-balls soon 
set the cotton on fire, 
and the bales had to WEW ORLEANS AND THE CREEK WAR - . 
be pulled out and earth dug up to take their place. The 
sugar hogsheads were as bad, for the American cannon 
knocked them to pieces, and sent the sugar flying every¬ 
where. Thus, it was found that cotton and sugar, which 
are very good things in their place, are not the right things 
to use in war. 

The Men Behind the Works.—“Stand to your guns, 
my men,” said Jackson, when he saw the British soldiers 

coming. “ Make every shot tell. Give it to them, boys.” 

198 





















ANDREW JACKSON 


He could trust them to do that, for the old hunters from 
Tennessee knew how to use their guns. Many of them 
could send a bullet into a squirrel’s eye. 

A Total Defeat.—It was a terrible battle that followed. 
The British soldiers were brave men, who had fought in 
many battles against the French, but they could not cross 
that ditch and climb that bank in face of the dreadful fire 



BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 


of the Americans. They fought on like good and true men 
until twenty-six hundred of them lay bleeding on the field, 
while only eight of the Americans were dead. Then they 
had to retreat, for they could not fight any longer. That 
ended the battle and the war. And it was the last time 

that Englishmen and Americans ever fought each other. 

199 

























DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY CLAY 


Jackson as President.—This battle made General Jack- 
son the hero of the country. He afterwards fought with 
the Indians in Florida, and in 1828 he was elected Presi¬ 
dent of the United States. He was President for eight 
years. It cannot be said that he was as good a President 
as he was a soldier. He was a very obstinate man and 
liked to do 1 everything his own way, and his way was not 
always the best for the country. But as a general he was 
one of the best men America ever had. 

Tell what you remember about— 

1. The boyhood of Andrew Jackson. 

2 . How he fought the Indians. 

3. His treatment of the brave chief. 

4. The war with Great Britain. 

5. How General Jackson defended New Orleans. 

6. What kind of a President he made. 

7. What kind of a soldier. 

¥¥ 

DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY OLAY. 

A Little Backwoods Boy.—Just at the time the 
Americans gained their freedom from King George and his 
parliament, a little boy, who was to become a great man, 
was born in the wild country of New Hampshire. His 
father had been a captain in the army, and had fought for 
freedom under General Washington. The boy’s name was 
Daniel Webster, and he was such a weak little fellow that 
all who saw him said he could not live. 

200 


DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY CLAY 


Daniel and the Old Sailor.—When little Daniel got oldef 
he was still so weak that he was not put to work on the 
farm, as his brother was, but was left to play. This just 
suited the little boy, for, like other boys, he wanted to have 
a good time, and all day long he would wander in the 
woods and about the fields. 

Near by there lived an old British sailor, who had run 
away from the ships, and was as fond of the woods as little 
Daniel was. He liked nothing better than to lift the boy 
upon his shoulder and carry him in under the green trees, 
or to row him up and down the river and teach him to 
fish. The two would lie on the bank for hours at a time, 
while the old man told the child long stories of his life on 
the sea. 

Going to College.—Daniel’s father was poor, but he 
wished his boy to be educated, so he sent him to college. 
There Daniel soon showed that he 
could beat all the other boys in a 
speech, and he was one of the best 
scholars in the college. After he 
left school he became a lawyer, and 
m 1813 he was elected to Congress. 

It was not long before men found 
him to be a wonderful speaker, and 
in time he was looked on as the 
best orator in the country. 

A Famous Orator.—Webster had been a sickly child, 

and nobody thought he would live to be a man, but his 

201 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY CLAY 


years of play in the woods had made him strong, and he 
became a large, fine-looking man, with a deep and musical 
voice. For many years he was a member of the United 
States Senate, and some of his speeches are among the 
best ever heard in the world. But all his life he kept his 
love for hunting and fishing, and liked to hide himself in 
the woods, out of sight of Congress and courts, and with 
only the birds and squirrels to make speeches to. 

The Boy of the “ Slashes.”—At the time that Daniel 
Webster was born, there was a little boy living in Virginia 
in a place called “ the Slashes.” His name was Henry Clay. 
He was then about five years old, and lived in a log cabin, 
where there was not much to eat, for his father died about 
this time, and his mother was left poor. She had a mean¬ 
looking old horse, which little Henry used to ride to mill 
with a sack of corn to be ground into meal. On that 
account he came to be called “ the mill boy of the Slashes.” 
Ho went barefooted, like most of the boys about him, and 
often bareheaded, too. There was a little country school- 
house near where he lived, and there he learned to read 
and write. 

Clay Makes his Way.—After he grew up he got a place 
as a clerk in the courts. He was thin and tall, and wore 
ill-fitting, home-made clothes, and looked so plain and awk¬ 
ward that the other clerks laughed at him. But they soon 
found that the awkward country boy could beat them all 
at talking, and he was so witty and pleasant that the best 

people were glad to have him in their homes. 

202 


DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY CLAY 



■v 

HENRY CLAY. 


Clay as an Orator.—The young clerk soon made friends, 
some of whom helped him to study law, and it was not 
long before he showed that he was a very fine speaker, 
both in the courts and in public. He 
was sent to Congress in 1806, and was 
for many years in the Senate of the 
United States. He was not a great 
thinker, like Webster, but he was a 
very pleasant speaker, for his voice was 
rich and sweet and his manner charmed 
all who met him. People to-day do 
not read his speeches as they do Webster’s, for they were 
better to hear than to read; but when he lived and spoke 
many men thought him the finest of American orators. 

Webster and Clay.—These two country boys, one born 
in the wilds of the North, and one in the back country of 
the South, were the most famous of American speakers. 
There have been many other fine orators in this country* 
but none who could argue like Webster and none who 
could please like Clay; so I have thought it best to tell 
about these two men, even if there are many of whom I 
cannot speak. 


Tell about— 

1. The youth of Daniel Webster. 

2. How he went to Congress and became a great orator. 

3. Also about the youth of Henry Clay. 

4 . How the awkward country boy got to Congress and made his 

mark as a speaker. 


203 


LIFE IN THE WEST 


LIFE IN THE WEST. 


Old Colony Times.—Some time ago you read of how 
people lived in the North and the South in old colony times. 
I must now say something about how they lived in the West 
in later times, for there were no white people in the west¬ 
ern country in the days of the colonies. 

Lack of Roads.—It was hard to get to the West in those 
days. There were no railroads or steamboats, and the 
roads were very poor, most of them only rough tracks cut 
through the woods, like that which Daniel Boone and his 
men made with their axes through the forest of Kentucky. 

How People went West.—You know how Daniel Boone 
and many others got West, over the mountains, by a long, 
rough way, that must have been very hard to travel. In 
the North they went in large wagons, drawn by horses or 
oxen. These now and then broke down and spilled out 
everything and everybody on the ground, but they picked 
themselves up again and went on. Others went down the 


Ohio River on what were 
called flat-boats. This 
was the easiest way, but 
it was a long journey to 
the Ohio, and those on 
the boats were not safe 



MISSISSIPPI FLAT-BOAT. 


from the Indians, who shot at them from the banks. The 
boats had to be made like floating forts. 

The Pioneer Houses.—When the travellers started a 
new home in the West they lived for a time in a very poor 


204 











LIFE IN THE WEST 


way. Their houses were made of logs, with clay to fill up 
the cracks. They had oiled paper for their windows in¬ 
stead of glass, so that not much light got into the houses 
in the winter time, but there were cracks in the walls where 
the cold winds got in. They had large fire-places, with 
plenty of wood to burn, and many of them had iron stoves. 
But there was little furniture and the farm-work was very 
hard. They had to cut down trees with their axes and 
plant corn between the stumps. 

The First School-Houses.—The school-house was also 
of logs and had its great fire-place, to which the children 
crowded up to get warm. They did not have fine seats 
and desks like the boys and girls of to-day, but had to sit 
on rough slabs of wood with wooden legs stuck into holes 
beneath. When they were old enough to write they had 
to use a narrow shelf around the wall, to which they could 
draw up their seats. Their pens were made out of goose- 
quills with a penknife by the master. 

Barefoot Scholars.—The master had his desk, and by 
his side he kept a bunch of hickory switches, for in those 
days it was thought that learning must be switched into 
boys and girls. Some of them did not go a day with¬ 
out a whipping. They all went barefoot to school unless 
the weather was cold, though some of the proud ones 
would carry their shoes in their hand, and put them on 
at the door to wear in school. 

How People Lived.—People lived in the West very much 

as they did in the East. They had their husking and their 

205 


THE L4ND OF GOLD 


house-raising frolics, their singing-schools and their nutting 
parties, and a traveller was always welcome in their houses. 
In time villages grew up where the old log-house had stood, 
frame and brick houses were built, stores were started with 
all sorts of goods, and the bustle of trade began. Thus 
life in the West followed life in the East. 

Tell about— 

1. How people made their way to the West. 

2. What kind of houses they built. 

3. What the old school-houses were like. 

4. How the master made the boys study. 

5. How people lived and enjoyed themselves. 

¥¥ 

THE LAND OF GOLD. 

The Great West.—I have just been talking about the 
West and how the first settlers lived there. But that was 
what we may call the little West, the country on the other 
side of the Alleghany (al-le-ga'ne) mountains, where the 
Ohio River runs. If we would seek the Great West we 
must cross the Mississippi River, to that broad country 
which Thomas Jefferson bought from France. And if we 
cross the Rocky Mountains we come to another West, a vast 
stretch of land on whose shores the waves of the Pacific 
Ocean beat. 

The War with Mexico.—It is to this far-off West that 
we must now go. If you wish to know how the United 

States spread so far across the country, I will say that in the 

206 


THE LAND OF GOLD 


year 1847 there was a war between this country ana Mex¬ 
ico, which lies south of the United States. This war was 
about Texas, which was once part of Mexico, but had got 
free from that country and joined the United States. After 
the war was over we got from Mexico a wide tract of land 
that spread out all the way from Texas to the Pacific 
Ocean. The part of it which is bounded by the ocean was 
called Cal-i-for'ni-a. This is now one of our States, and 
one of the richest of them all, but then there were very 
few people in it. 

Captain Sutter’s Land. —One of the rivers of California 
is called the Sac-ra-men'to, and into this there runs a 
smaller river called the American. Where these rivers 
come together there lived a settler named Captain Sutter, 
who owned all the land for many miles around and had 
thousands of cattle, horses, and sheep in his fields. He 
lived there like a little 
king, though he had 
many more wild beasts 
and tame animals than 
he had men in his king¬ 
dom. 

Building 1 a Saw-Mill. 

—Captain Sutter wanted 
lumber for use on his 
great farm, and sent a 
man named Marshall up the American River to build a 

saw-mill, so that he might cut the trees into boards and 

207 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT SUTTER’S SAW-MILL. 


• . _ . . .. . 




THE LAND OF GOLD 


planks. Marshall soon had the mill under way, and built 
a dam to bring water to the water-wheel. He also set 
men to dig a ditch to carry the water away after it had 
turned the wheel. 

The Shining Yellow Specks.— One day Marshall was 
taking a walk along this ditch and looking down to see if it 
was all right, when he saw some yellow specks shining in 
the dirt that had been thrown out. He washed some of 
these specks out of the dirt and found them very bright. 
That night he showed them to the workmen and said, 
“ What do you think of those ? I think I have found a 
gold-mine.” One of the men laughed and answered, “ I 
reckon not. No such good luck as that.” 

What Marshall Showed Sutter.— As soon as he could 
get away, Marshall rode down the river to see Captain Sut¬ 
ter. He asked the captain to lock the door so that no one 
could come in, as he had something to show him which no¬ 
body else must see. Then he took a paper from his pocket, 
spread it open, and showed some of the shining yellow dust. 
“What do you think that is ?” he asked. “ I think it is gold, 
but the people at the mill laugh at me and call me crazy.” 

Testing the Gold-Dust.— Captain Sutter knew how to 
tell gold from other things. First he weighed the yellow 
stuff, and found it was as heavy as gold. Then he pounded 
it with a hammer, and found it was as tough as gold. Then 
he poured strong acid on it, and found it did not melt away 
or change color, as other metals will under acid. It was 

gold, he said; there was no doubt about that. 

208 


THE LAND OF GOLD 


What Sutter Did.—The captain asked Marshall to say 
nothing about it. He said a gold mine would be no good 
to him. If people heard that gold had been found, they 
would flock in and dig up his land, and he might lose the 
whole of it. He wanted the saw-mill just then more than 
he did gold. But for all that he tried to get the land where 
the gold was found, for he rented it for three years from 
the Indians, and paid them with some shirts, hats, hand¬ 
kerchiefs, and flour. That is the way white men have 
always bought land from the Indians. 

The Secret is Out. —No one can keep a secret like that. 
Sutter asked Marshall to keep quiet, but he did not keep 
quiet himself. He talked about it, and soon the story got 
out that gold had been found. One day in May, 1848, a 
man came into San Francisco. This, which is now a great 
city, was then a little town of frame shanties. This man 
ran through the streets like a madman, shouting and swing¬ 
ing his hat, and holding up a bottle of gold dust. “Gold! 
gold !” he cried ; “ gold from the American River!” 

The Rush for Gold.—That was enough to make every¬ 
body wild for gold. People set out from all sides, each 
man with a spade and a pick-axe to dig for gold. Store¬ 
keepers shut up their stores, sailors ran away from the ships 
in the harbor, farmers left their fields, everybody who could 
walk or row a boat set out for the gold-fields. 

The Gold Fever Grows. —Soon Captain Sutter’s land 
was full of people, who dug up the ground, fed on his cat¬ 
tle, and did not care what he said or what he thought. 


14 


DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE 


Gold was found in many places, and it was not long before 
men were coming from all parts of the United States, and 
millions of dollars worth of gold were being dug up and 
washed from the mud of the streams. 

The Pinal Result.—Captain Sutter lost all his land and 
became a poor man. Marshall became poorer still. The 
men who had found the gold got no good from it. But thou¬ 
sands grew rich. In seven years’ time the gold found was 
worth nearly five hundred million dollars. This country is 
still rich in gold, but California is richer in grain and fruits 
and other products of the fields than in gold, and hundreds 
of thousands of people are at work on its farms. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. How the West has grown and spread. 

2. What came from the war with Mexico. 

3. About Captain Sutter and his land. 

4. What Marshall found in the mill-race and how Sutter tested it. 

5. How the secret got out. 

6. The rush for gold. 

7. What is said of California to-day. 

¥¥ 

DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE. 

The Oregon Country.—Now let us take a look to the 
north of California. Here there was another great country 
named Oregon, but for a long time nobody seemed to want 

it. There was no gold to bring people there, and nothing 

210 


DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE 


of value was known there except furs, which could be 
bought from the Indians. Captain Gray, of Boston, was 
one of the first men to go there, and he gave a chief an old 
iron chisel for two hundred skins of the sea-otter, which 
were worth about eight thousand dollars. That was like 
Captain Sutter with his hats and handkerchiefs. 

Captain Gray’s Voyage.—Captain Gray found a great 
river which he named the Columbia, and which was full 
of fish. He loaded his 
ship with furs and came 
back to Boston. He 
was the first man to 
carry the American flag 
around the earth. Cap¬ 
tain Gray made his 
voyage when General 
Washington was Presi¬ 
dent. 

Travellers to Ore¬ 
gon. —You have been told how Lewis and Clark crossed 
the Rocky Mountains and came to the Pacific Ocean. This 
was in Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River. Later 
on others came there for furs, and after many years men 
began to cross the Rocky Mountains to seek new homes in 
Oregon. One of these was a doctor named Marcus Whit¬ 
man, who had just been married, and brought his young 
wife out to that rough country. They were the first to 

cross the Rocky Mountains in a wagon. 

211 











DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE 


An English Boast.—I have said that nobody seemed 
to want that country. That was the case for many years, 
but there came a time when the English wanted it. They 
had found it so rich in furs that the fur-traders of Canada 
thought it was worth having, and began to send men there. 
It is thought that they wished to get possession of the 
country for England before the United States should claim 
it. But there were now many Americans in Oregon and 
these began to suspect the purpose of the Canadian fur- 
traders. Among these was Dr. Whitman. 

Whitman in the Saddle.—Soon after this Dr. Whitman 
was in the saddle and had started on a ride of three thou¬ 
sand miles. He had some business to do at home, but it is 
said that his chief purpose was to get to the East as soon 
as he could and try to get Congress to claim the Oregon 
country, which there was great danger of losing. He left 
his young wife at their home in Oregon and set out with one 
companion and a guide. His companion, whose name was 
Lovejoy, found it such a hard ride that he became worn 
out before the journey ended. 

The Snow and the Ice.—No man ever made a more ter* 
rible journey. It was winter and the mountains were full of 
snow. At one place a great snow-storm kept the travellers 
fast among the rocks for ten days. At another time they had 
a river to cross that was half ice and half water, and which 
Lovejoy and the guide were afraid to cross till the doctor 
leaped in and made them ashamed. As they went on they 
were almost starved, and had to kill dogs and mules for food. 

212 


DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE 


Lost in the Mountains.—I have told you how they were 
kept for ten days in the mountains by a snow-storm. Dr. 
Whitman tried to get 
out, but he was lost in 
the snow and went 
back and forth trying 
in vain to find his way. 

The cold was bitter. At 
length he had to stop. 

He could go no farther, 
and thought he would 


have to stay where he 
was and freeze to death. 

Saved by a Mule.— 

By good luck the guide 
who was with him had 
a very knowing mule, 
which began to move 
its ears and head in a queer fashion. When the guide 
saw this he dropped the reins and let the mule go its 
own way. He said to the doctor, “ Follow him. He 
will find the camp if he can live to reach it.” The mule 
started and made its way down slopes and through wild 
places. After a while they came to a place they had seen 
before, and began to smell smoke in the air. Very soon 
they saw with glad eyes the camp-fire they had left that 
morning. The logs still showed sparks of fire, and they 

soon had a warm blaze. That was a mule worth having. 

213 



whitman’s ride. 




DOCTOR WHITMAN’S RIDE 


How Whitman Got Fuel.—At another time they came 
to a river side. The river was frozen, but the ice was not 
thick enough to bear the weight of a man. Yet the air was 
freezing cold and there was no wood on that side of the 
stream. They must get across if they wanted a fire. Dr. 
Whitman knew how he could cross on the thin ice. He 
lay down flat on the ice and went across in a wriggling 
way, pushing the axe before him. Then he cut some wood 
and came back in the same manner, pushing the axe and 
the wood. Soon they had a fire and a warm supper. 
You may see that Dr. Whitman and the mule knew how 
to get out of a tight place. 

Whitman in the East.—It was the 3d of March, 1843, 
when Dr Whitman finished his long journey. He had been 
five months on that terrible winter ride. Few in the East 
knew how fine a country Oregon was, but Whitman wrote 
about it to the President and told him that this country was 
in great danger of losing it. 

A Wagon-Train.—Then he spread his story all through 

the country, tell¬ 
ing the people 
about the beauty 
of the land and 
the richness of 
the soil. They 
could cross the 
mountains in wagons with their families, he said, for he 

had done so. When June came, and he was ready to 

214 



AN EMIGRANT TRAIN. 








ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


start back, there were two hundred wagons, filled with 
men, women, and children, ready to go to Oregon. 

Home Again.—Dr. Whitman went with them across the 
plains and mountains, and on the 4th of September he 
came again to the door of his home and was met with a 
warm kiss by his wife. He had been gone eleven months, 
and she had feared she would never see him again. 

Oregon is Won.—Dr. Whitman had saved Oregon for 
this country, having set in motion a small army of settlers 
to that country. Others soon followed, and the British fur- 
traders gave up their hopes. The Americans had been too 
quick for them. The country called Oregon has since then 
been cut up into three States, which are named Oregon, 
Washington, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. About Oregon and what was thought of it. 

2 . What Dr. Whitman heard. 

3. What he set out to do. 

4. How the mule saved his life. 

5. How he crossed the river. 

6. How he saved Oregon. 

¥¥ 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The Chance for Poor Boys.—There is no country in the 
world where a poor boy has the same chance to become 
rich or great as he has in our land of liberty. There are 

many rich men among us to-day who began life without a 

215 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


penny. And some of our greatest men had very poor 
parents and had to work hard to help them when they were 
young. I have told you about some of these, and am now 
going to tell you about the poorest of them all, who became 
one of the greatest and noblest. 

A Poor Kentucky Boy.—This boy’s name was Abraham 
Lincoln. His grandfather came to Kentucky to live soon 
after Daniel Boone went there, and the family stayed there 
until after little Abe Lincoln—as the people called him— 
was seven years old. Then they moved north across the 
Ohio River, and settled in Indiana, which was then a wild 
country. 

The House he Lived in.—I am sure you would not like 
to live in the house that Mr. Lincoln built, for it was only a 
rough little shed, made of logs and limbs of trees. It did 
not need any door or windows, for it had only three sides. 
One side of it was open, and let in all the light they wanted 
and a good deal more of the cold air. There was no floor, 
and some of us might think that a cow-shed was as good a 
place to live in. There was no fire-place or chimney, for 
the fire was made outside. In the winter they had to hang 
up buffalo-skins to keep out the cold. In the summer it 
was like living out-of-doors. 

A New Home Built.—The family lived for a year or 
more in this shed ; then Mr. Lincoln built a house with four 
sides to it. It was a rough place still, and the furniture was 
made with an axe. The table was a log split in half, with 

the flat side made smooth, and sticks stuck in below for 

216 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


legs. The chairs were rough stools made in the same way. 
Little Abe's room was in the loft, where he had a bag of 
dry leaves in one corner for a bed. When he went to bed 
he had to climb up a row of wooden pins driven into the 
logs. It is likely he had to wear very poor clothes and 
often had not much to eat, though there was plenty of game 
in the woods. But he had a good, kind mother, and no 
doubt the little fellow was happy enough. 

He Learns to Read and Write.—Little Abe had plenty 
of work to do, helping his father about the farm and chop¬ 
ping up vood for fires. He did not get much schooling. 
There was a log school-house a good way off, where he 
went long enough to learn to read and write. After that 
he did all his studying at home. He would sit on the floor 
before the fire on winter nights and read and write by its 
blaze. He had only a few books. These were the Bible, 
Pilgrim’s Progress, Alsop’s Fables, the Life of Washington, 
and one or two more. These he read over and over till he 
knew much of them by heart. 

A Backwoods Copy-Book.— When he wanted to write 
or cipher, he had to do it on the back of the wooden fire- 
shovel. He wrote on this with a piece of charcoal. After 
it got full of words or figures all he had to do was to shave 
it off, and he had a clean surface again to write on. If 
the shovel got worn-out, it was easy for him to chop a 
new one out of a tree with his axe and hatchet. 

The Boy Becomes a Scholar.— You may be sure a boy 

like this did not waste much of his time. He kept at his 

217 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


studies till he could write and cipher very well, and could 
read and spell as well. He was looked upon as quite a 
scholar, and many of the men living near got him to write 

their letters, for few of them knew 
how to write. 

Lincoln Grows Up.—Nobody 
called him little Abe Lincoln when 
he got older, for he grew to be big 
Abe Lincoln. When he was nine¬ 
teen years old he was larger and 
stronger than any man about. He 
was nearly six feet four inches high, 
and when he took his axe in hand 
none of them could make the chips 
fly as fast. In fact, he got to be one 
of the greatest rail-splitters in the 
country, and thought nothing of splitting four hundred fence- 
rails to pay for every yard of cloth to make his clothes. 

Flat-Boat Trips.—He soon began to do other things. 
He went twice on a flat-boat to New Orleans. Once the 
boat was loaded with hogs, and when they would not go 
on board he picked up the stubborn things and carried 
them on the boat in his arms. Another time some negroes 
tried to rob the boat, but Abe went at them with a club 
and soon sent them flying. 

An Honest Clerk.—After that time he became a clerk in 
a store in Illinois. His father had moved to that State. 

Here he showed that he was a very honest lad. Once a 

' 218 



RAIL-SPLITTING. 






ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


woman gave him six cents too much for what she bought, 
and at night, after the store was closed, he walked five or 
six miles to take back her six cents. Another time he 
did not give a woman her right weight of tea, and he 
walked a long distance to take her the rest of the tea. 
When people heard of his doing things like these they began 
to call him honest Abe Lincoln. 

Studying* Grammar.— While he was at the store he got 
hold of more books to read and study. One book he 
wanted badly was a grammar, so that he could learn to 
speak correctly. But grammars were very scarce in that 
country. Some one told him that a man who lived eight 
miles away had one, and he walked that distance and bor¬ 
rowed it from him. Here and there he found the grammar 
too hard, but a lawyer who came to the store helped him 
over these hard places. 

The Armstrongs.— Though Lincoln was big and strong, 
he did not like to fight. But many of the men of the coun¬ 
try were fond of fighting. There was a gang of young fel¬ 
lows who were led by a man named Jack Armstrong, and 
who tried to make every stranger they met fight with them. 
One day Jack Armstrong made up his mind he would whip 
Abe Lincoln. But he soon found that he had made a mis¬ 
take, for he got whipped himself, and he learned a lesson 
which he did not soon forget. 

A Trial for Murder.— After that Lincoln and the Arm¬ 
strongs were the best of friends. The time came when a 

man was killed in a fight and a brother of Jack Armstrong 

219 


LINCOLN IN LATER LIFE 


was arrested for the murder. Lincoln was a lawyer then. 
He did not believe that Armstrong had killed the man, and 
he said he would defend him. When the trial came on one 
witness said he had seen Armstrong strike the man dead. 
Lincoln asked him if he was sure of this. He said that he 
was, for it was bright moonlight, and he had seen it plainly. 
Then Lincoln took an almanac from his pocket and showed 
the court that the moon was not shining at that hour on 
the night of the murder. The jury said the prisoner was 
not guilty, and the judge set him free. 

Pay for Kindness.—Mrs. Armstrong had been kind to 
Lincoln when he was a poor young man. He paid her 
now for her kindness by saving her son’s life, and he would 
not take any money for doing so, a? she was too poor to 
pay a lawyer. 

Tell what you remember about— 

1. The kind of house Lincoln lived in. 

2. How he got his education. 

3. What his copy-book was like. 

4. What kind of a man he made. 

5. Why people called him honest. 

6. Tell the story of Jack Armstrong and the trial for murder. 

¥¥ 

LINCOLN IN LATER LIFE. 

Lincoln in War.—You have read about how Abraham 
Lincoln lived and what he did as a boy; now I must tell 
about him as a man. There was a war with the Indians at 


220 


LINCOLN IN LATER LIFE 


that time, and he went as a soldier; but he had no fighting 
to do, and he saved the life of one old Indian. He said 
that all the battles he fought were with the mosquitoes. 

In New Business.—When Lincoln came home from the 
war he did not go back to rail-splitting. He had been a 
clerk in a country store, and now he started one of his 
own, but he was too much of a reader to make money in 
store-keeping, and all he did in the store was to get into 
debt. Then he took care of a post-office. After that he 
learned how to survey land, and made some money in this 
way. While he was doing this he studied law all he could, 
for he had made up his mind to be a lawyer. 

He Goes to the Legislature.—Everybody liked young 
Lincoln, for he got to be a good talker and could tell so 
many funny stories that he always made people laugh. 
And when he said anything the people knew that they 
could believe him. So they sent him to the Legislature of 
Illinois and he became one of the law-makers of the State, 
He had a hundred miles to go to the State capital, and had 
no money to waste on horse-hire, so, as he was young and 
strong, he walked all the way. 

Lincoln as a Lawyer.—The people kept sending him to 
the Legislature after that for many years, for they found he 
was just the man for them. When he was not there he 
was surveying land and studying law. He got to be a good 
lawyer, but he did not make much money, for he would 
not take pay from poor people, and would not take a case 
in court if he did not think it was just and right. 



LINCOLN IN LATER LIFE 


The Pig in the Mud-Hole.—Abraham Lincoln was one 
of the most kind-hearted of men. Once when he was 
riding to court he saw a pig in a mud-hole, which it could 
not get out of. He had on a new suit of clothes and did 
not want to spoil them with mud, so he rode on. But he 
could not keep from thinking of the poor pig in the mud, 
and it worried him so that he turned back after he had 
gone two miles, and pulled the poor creature out of the 
mud. Piggy grunted his thanks and trotted away, and 
Lincoln rode on looking as if he had been in a mud-hole 
himself. 

Lincoln in Congress.—After a while Lincoln was elected 
to Congress, and became one of the law-makers for the 
whole country. This was in 1846. While he was there 
the war with Mexico went on, and there was much talk 

about slaves. Lincoln thought that 
the owners of slaves ought not to take 
them into new States or Territories, 
and he said so in his speeches. He 
was now a very good and sensible 
speaker, and in time his name became 
known all through the country. 

He is made President.—In 1860, 
when the party that did not like 
slavery was ready to choose a man to 
run for President, they picked out Abraham Lincoln as the 
best man they could think of, and when election day came 

so many voted for him that he was elected President of 

222 



LINCOLN. 


LINCOLN IN LATER LIFE 


the United States. When his name was offered, his 
friends carried in two old fence-rails which he had split 
when he was a young man. The poor rail-splitter was 
now the greatest man in the United States. 

A Four Years’ War.—It is not always pleasant to be 
President. President Lincoln found it a very hard task, 
indeed. For a great war broke out between the North and 
the South, and kept on for four years, and many of the 
people blamed Lincoln for all the troubles and mistakes 
that took place. But he was so kind and patient and so 
wise and honest that the common people and the soldiers 
grew to love him, and at last nearly every one said that 
we had never had a better or a greater President. 

The Death of Lincoln.—There were men who hated 
him because the South had lost in the war, and one of 
these men shot him after the war was over. This was on 
the 14th of April, 1865. The President died from the 
wound, and the whole country mourned him as if every 
one had lost his best friend. Even the people in the South 
were very sorry, for they had learned that Abraham Lincoln 
was not their enemy. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. How Lincoln tried to make his way. 

2. What kind of a lawyer he made. 

3. The story of the pig. 

4. What he said in Congress. 

5. How he became President and what people thought of him. 

& How he was murdered. 


223 


THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 


THE GREAT CIVIL. WAR. 

The Cause of the War.— Now we have come to a sad 
part of the history of our country, the great war which 
took place while Abraham Lincoln was President, and in 
which so many dreadful battles were fought. For years 
before this time there had been a great deal of bad feeling 
between the people of the North and the South on account 
of the slaves. But do you know what is meant by this 
word ? There have been no slaves in this country since 
any of you were born, and many of you may not know 
what slaves were. I must tell you about them. 

The Slavery Trouble.— Well, at one time all the black 
people in this country were not free, as they are now, but 
belonged to masters, who had paid for them, and for whom 
they had to work. Their masters had the right to sell 
them if they wished. But there came a time when the 
people of the North set their slaves free. At a later time 
many people said that the Southern masters ought to do 
the same thing, but not many of them were willing to do 
so, for that would have made the most of them poor. 

The Union of the States.—It was this that made bad 
feeling between the North and the South, for many people 
in the North helped the slaves to run away, and in the end 
it brought on war. Most of the States in which slaves were 
kept wanted to leave the Union * and form a new govern- 

* The Union : This meant at first the joining together of the thirteen 
colonies to form one government. It now means the combination of 
all the States into one nation. 


224 



THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 


ment of their own. President Lincoln and Congress said 
they should not do so, and that the Union should not be 
broken up. There were eleven States 
that tried to leave the Union. The 
other States tried to keep them in. 

The Confederate States.—For the 
first and only time in the history of 
this country there was war between 
the States. The Southern States 
which tried to leave the Union took 
the name of the Confederate States 
of America, and chose for President Jefferson Davis, of 
Mississippi, and for Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, 
of Georgia. 

Davis as Soldier and Statesman. —Jefferson Davis 
was born in Kentucky in 1808. He was sent to West 
Point to learn to be a soldier, and afterwards spent seven 

years in the army, most of the time 
in the West, where there was much 
fighting with the Indians. Then he 
left the army and became a planter 
in Mississippi. Soon he was sent to 
HP Congress. But when the war with 
Mexico began, Davis was made a 
colonel in the army, and proved 
himself a brave and able soldier. 
After the war he was elected to Congress as United States 
Senator, and in 1853 became Secretary of War. 

225 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


15 


THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 


President of the Confederacy.—In 1857 Davis was 
sent back to the Senate. He was a true Southerner, and, 
in 1861, when he learned that his State had left the Union, 
he resigned from Congress, feeling it to be his duty to re¬ 
main with his State. The people of the South were glad 
to have him for President of their new Union. He held 
this high office for the four years of the war. In 1865, 
after the war ended, Davis was kept as a prisoner for two 
years in Fortress Monroe. When he was set free he went 
to his home in Mississippi, and died there in 1889. 

The Gathering of the Armies.—Soon there was a 
great coming and going of soldiers, and beating of drums. 
Mothers wept as they bade good-by to their sons, whom 
they were afraid they would never see again. And 
many of the soldier boys had wet eyes and sad hearts, 
though they tried to hide it with shouts and hurrahs. It 
was not long before many of these poor fellows on both 


sides were falling dead or wounded, 
and there was the most terrible time 
the country had ever seen. 



Battle and Death.—The war kept 
on for four long years, from 1861 to 
1865. There were battles by land 
and by sea, and hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of brave men marched away 
to the battle-field with their muskets 


ROBERT E. LEE. 


on their shoulders. Many thousands of them never saw 
their homes again, but were buried in far-off graves. 


226 


THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 


The Iron-Clad Ships.—One battle took place on the 
water between two ships named the Monitor and the Mer- 
rimac, both of which were covered with thick iron, so that 
the cannon-balls bounded off from them like hail-stones 
from a wall. This was the first fight that ever took place 
between iron-clad ships. 

The War on Land.—On land there were many battles in 
Virginia, between the cities of Washington and Richmond. 



BATTLE OF THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 


Washington was the capital of the North, and Richmond 
the capital of the South, and the armies fought hard for 
these cities. There were many other battles in the West 
and the South. Roth sides won victories, but the North 
had the most men and money and ships, and step by step 


227 








THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 


the Southern armies were forced back. There was only 
one great battle in the North, at Gettysburg, in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. All the rest of the war was 
fought in the States in which slaves 
were kept. 

The Famous Generals.—Many 
generals got to be famous during the 
war. Ulysses S. Grant, who began 
as a colonel, became commander-in¬ 
chief of the 
Northern ar¬ 
mies, and Robert E. Lee was made 
commander-in-chief of those of 
the South. William T. Sherman 
and Philip H. Sheridan were other 
famous generals of the North, and 
Joseph E. Johnston and Thomas 
J. Jackson of 
the South. 

The last of these was known as 
“ Stonewall Jackson,” and was a very 
brave man. 

The South Suffers.—Both sides 
thought they were in the right, and 
both were ready to give all they had 
that the right should rule. But the 
South suffered the most, for the ships of the North would 

not let merchant vessels enter their ports, and they ran 

228 



PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 



STONEWALL JACKSON. 



WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 


EVENTS AFTER THE WAR 


out of clothes and goods of ail kinds, while many of their 
houses were burned and their fields ruined. 

End of the War.—At last the army of General Grant 
took the city of Richmond, and General Lee was forced to 
surrender what was left of his army. Soon after all the 
South stopped fighting. The slaves, about whom the war 
was fought, were all set free, and peace came back to the 
land. 

Good Friends Again.—It would take the whole of this 
book to tell you about what took place in this long war. 
You will read about it in larger histories when you grow 
older. All we need say now is that everybody is glad that 
the Union was saved, and the North and the South have 
grown to be the best of friends again. 

1. Tell what you think is meant by the word slave. 

2. Why did the South want to leave the Union? 

3. What is said of Jefferson Davis? 

4. What famous naval battle took place? 

5. What generals became famous ? 

6. How did the war end ? 

7. How do the North and the South feel towards each other now? 

¥¥ 

YEARS OF DISASTER. 

War with the Indians.—If you go back to page 101 and 
read into page 109 you will find something said about the 
Indians of this country, the Red Men, as they are often 

229 


YEARS OF DISASTER 


called. These wild woodsmen fought hard for the land 
they had long owned and which the white men were tak¬ 
ing from them. They were very cruel and put many of 
their enemies to death in a dreadful way. After the Civil 
War the Indians west of the Mississippi River began to fight 
again and some of the same terrible deeds took place. We 
may be glad that this is all over, and that the Red Men are 
now being taken care of, while their children are taught 
to read and write, and also to work. We may be sure that 
they will live better and happier in this way than in their 
old savage manner. It always pays much better to work than 
to fight. 

The Chicago Fire.—Indian wars, however, were not the 
only disasters which the people of our country had to face. 
There were others due to the forces of nature of which we 
must now speak. One of these was a frightful fire that 
took place in Chicago in 1871. Do you know where this 
great city is ? If you look at your maps you will find it in 
the State of Illinois and on the shore of Lake Michigan. 
Its story has been a wonderful one. Where it now stands 
there was in 1831, less than a century ago, only a small 
village of about a dozen houses. In this place there is now 
a mighty city, one of the largest in the world. In it dwell 
nearly three million people. Ho other city in the world 
ever grew so fast as this. In 1871, the year of the great 
fire, it was much smaller than now and most of its houses 
were built of wood, ready to burn easily. 

The Dreadful Loss.—One night, when a fierce wind was 

230 


YEARS OF DISASTER 


blowing over lake and shore, a fire began in a stable, in 
which a cow is said to have kicked over an oil lamp. It 
spread so fast before the gale that nothing could stop it. 
For two days and as many nights the flames leaped upward 
and spread outward until thousands of houses were burned 
and many of the people had lost their lives. Those who 
escaped had to dwell in tents until new houses could be 
built for them. The loss in property was about two hun¬ 
dred millions of dollars. About a year later a fire broke 
out in the city of Boston, in which eighty million dollars 
worth of property were destroyed. These were two of the 
greatest fires in our history. 

Forest Fires.—Not only the cities but the forests were 
in some way set on fire in this same year, and millions of 
trees, many of which had been growing for centuries of past 
time, were burned into ashes. Far and wide, for miles 
and miles, the flames spread outward. And while the cities 
could be quickly built again, many years would be needed 
for new forests to grow out of the ashes. Since that date 
there have been many other forest fires and large losses 
in many parts of the country. 

The San Francisco Earthquake.—Fires and storms were 
bad enough, but they were not the only agents of ruin. 
They did their work above ground, but far underground 
lay a sleeping giant which at times woke up and spread 
ruin far and wide. This was what we call the earthquake. 
It breaks forth at times in all regions of the earth and our 
own happy land is not safe from it. The worst of all these 

231 


YEARS OF DISASTER 


in the history of our country was one that broke out in 
California in April, 1906. This tore up and shook up the 
ground for many miles, its center of violence being the large 
city of San Francisco, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 
On all sides stores, factories, and dwellings felt its terrible 
power, while hundreds of its citizens were killed and many 
more were sadly hurt. 

All of us may be glad that earthquakes are not numerous, 
for there is nothing that causes more terror and destruction. 
Their work is often done in a minute of time, but its evil 
effect lasts for days or years. The loss in San Francisco was 
greater than that of the fire in Chicago, it being estimated 
at more than three hundred millions of dollars. This was 
not all due to the earthquake, for fire followed it in many 
quarters and added greatly to the loss. Not only San Fran¬ 
cisco, but many smaller towns were ruined and it took 
years to rebuild the fallen city. 

Winds and Waters.— You may see from all this that the 
earth we live on is often a scene of disaster and that our 
own beloved country does not escape from it. Not only fire, 
flood, and earthquake, but the air we breathe and the water 
we drink often bring destruction. The mild and gentle air 
at times breaks into the cyclone and the tornado, great 
whirling storms of wind that rend and tear everything in 
their pathway, send great ships to the ocean depths, and 
in a very short time hurl villages and towns into fragments. 

Water is, in its way, as terrible as wind. Both of these 
alike have their days of quiet and their days of riot. On the 

232 


YEARS OF CELEBRATION 


ocean the two work together, the wind lifting the water into 
great billows and making the path of the sailor one of peril. 
On land wind and water each has its separate field of action. 

The Johnstown Flood.— It is by the breaking of dams 
that water does its worst work oh land. Near Johnstown, 
a town of Pennsylvania, a large dam gave away on a May 
day in 1889. The water poured out in a terrible flood that 
swept away nearly the whole of this busy center of industry. 
More than two thousand of the town people were drowned 
and ten million dollars worth of property were destroyed. 
Such is at times the work of water when it breaks loose 
from the bonds that confine it. 

Tell in your own way about — 

1. The life of the Indians. 

2. The great fires of our history. 

3. What an earthquake can do. 

4. The wild work of wind and water. 

¥¥ 

YEARS OF CELEBRATION. 

The Centennial Celebration.—Our young readers must 
not think because we have told them such tales of disas¬ 
ter, that there is little to be proud of in the history of our 
country. In fact there is much to praise and celebrate, and 
this has been made clear by the various celebrations which 
have been held. The first of these we need speak of was 
that known by the name of The Centennial Exhibition.* The 

* Exhibition : a display of goods or articles of any kind. Centen¬ 
nial means some event that took place a century or one hundred 
years ago. 

233 



YEARS OF CELEBRATION 


4th of July, 1876, was a famous day in the United States. 
The Declaration of Independence had been signed on that 
date a hundred years before and everybody said it should 
be celebrated as the first great day in our history. This 
was done in a splendid way, as we shall tell. 

Philadelphia and Its World’s Pair. —In Philadelphia, in 
which city the Declaration had been signed in 1776, there 
was a wonderful display, one of the greatest and most 
important that had been held up to that time. It was 
kept open for six months, fine and costly goods being sent 
there from all parts of the world. Such a beautiful and 
grand show had rarely been seen before and millions of 
people came to see it. Not only the rich came, but the 
poor also. It is said that one woman took up the carpet 
from her floor and sold it to get money to go to the great 
Fair. She was willing to walk on bare floors that she 
might see the wonders of all the world. She could live 
without carpets, but not without the Fair. 

The Columbian Exhibition. — The Centennial proved so 
great a success that many who had seen it and many who 
had been too young to visit it were quite ready to see 
another celebration of the same kind. Our country had 
other great anniversaries to celebrate. One of these 
was the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, four 
hundred years before 1892. This Fair should have been 
held in the latter year, but the buildings could not be got 
ready in time, so it was held in 1893. It took place in the 
city of Chicago, the scene of the great fire of 1871, no 

234 


YEARS OF CELEBRATION 


traces of which were then to be seen. It was called the 
Columbian World’s Fair in honor of Columbus, and was a 
wonderful display of the finest and most beautiful things to 
be seen at that time in the world. The buildings stood on 
the shore of Lake Michigan, many of them being of great 
size. They were white as snow and were made splendid 
by fountains and flowers aud thousands of electric lights, 
so that at night the whole looked like a city built by the 
fairies. The goods displayed came from all parts of the 
earth, and were so rare and many of them so striking that 
those who saw them said they had never dreamed of any¬ 
thing so grand and attractive. 

The St. Louis and Other Exhibitions.— We cannot de¬ 
scribe all the great displays, large and small, that have at 
times been held in this country. One of these was given 
at the city of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904, in honor of the 
purchase from France a hundred years before of the great 
country west of the Mississippi River, all of which was long 
known as Louisiana, in honor of King Louis of France. 
This Fair, like the others named, was large and fine, the 
buildings being handsome and the grounds highly orna¬ 
mental. An immense number of attractive articles of all 
kinds was shown and millions of people came to see 
the display. 

Of other exhibitions we may name one held in Portland, 
Oregon, in honor of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the 
Pacific Ocean; one near Norfolk, Virginia, in 1907, on the 
three hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Virginia, 

235 



STAGES OF PROGRESS 


and one in 1909 at Seattle, Washington, in honor of the 
development of the Pacific region. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. The story of the Centennial Exhibition. 

2. What did the Columbian Fair celebrate ? 

3. The St. Louis Exhibition ? 

4. What other fairs can you name ? 

¥* 

STAGES OF PROGRESS. 

Railroads and Telegraphs.—Let us now talk of some 
other interesting things. It is well, for instance, to speak 
about the way railroads have spread over the whole country, 
until now we can travel from the shores of the Atlantic 
Ocean to those of the Pacific Ocean in a few days. The 
telegraph has spread in the same way, until it covers the 
whole country like a great wire net, and runs under the 
ocean to far-off Europe. We can also talk over the tele¬ 
phone wires to people many miles away as if they were in 
the next room. I am sure you must think all this very 
wonderful. But this is not all. Our people and the civi¬ 
lized inhabitants of the whole world can now telegraph for 
thousands of miles without wires, and can even telephone, 
or talk without wires, for long distances through the air, as 
we talk from side to side of a room. Is not this like magic P 
Steamcars and Steamships. —When we want to travel 
a strange story may be told. A hundred years ago people 
did most of their traveling on horses overland and on sail- 


STAGES OF PROGRESS 


ing vessels over the ocean. Today the iron horse, as the 
locomotive is called, carries us at great speed and for vast 
distances over the railways, while the steam engine drives 
ships swiftly over the waters. And this is all done with 
such great speed and such comfort that where one of our 
grandfathers may have made a long journey, a thousand or 
more of their grandchildren now do the same. 

The National Parks.—In some parts of our country 
there are remarkable sights to be seen, such as the Falls of 
Niagara, the giant trees of California, the boiling fountains of 
the Yellowstone Valley, and many other marvels of nature. 
These have been taken over by the Government and are 
now held as National Parks, or public places, for the 
pleasure of the people during ages to come, while thousands 
of people now visit them every year. N o other country of the 
world has so many or so great a variety of these wonders 
of nature as our own favored land. 

Alaska.—Far away to the north is a great tract of land 
that once belonged to Russia, but years ago was bought 
from that country and added to the United States. This is 
now called Alaska, tt is very cold there, and in the winter 
there is much ice and snow, but for all that it is a land of 
plenty, and Russia made a bad bargain in selling it. Its 

rivers are full of salmon and other food fish. Valuable 
forests spread far and wide. And from its islands come 

the beautiful seal-skin furs, which ladies so much admire. 
And that is not all; gold was soon found there as it long 
before had been found in California, and millions of dollars 

237 


THE WAR WITH SPAIN 


worth of this costly metal have been dug from the soil and 
streams of that rich arctic land. 

What do you know about — 

1. The telephone and telegraph. 

2. The modern means of travel. 

3. The riches of Alaska. 

¥¥ 

THE WAR. WITH SPAIN 

The Island of Cuba.—If you have a map of our country 
to look at, and know where to find the State of Florida on 
it, you will see that this State runs down into the ocean of 
the South, and comes to a point far in the southern waters. 
Not far below this point you will see a long island named 
Cuba. It is near enough to this country to belong to it, but 
it was held by Spain for more than four hundred years 
after it was discovered by Columbus, in 1492. Spain at one 
time owned a great part of America, and might have owned 
it still if she had treated the people well. But they did not 
like to be dealt with as if they were slaves, and they fought 
for liberty until they all became free except those in the 
island of Cuba and the small island farther east known as 
Porto Rico. 

The Rebellion in Cuba.—The government of Spain would 
have been wise to treat the Cubans in a different way. But 
it went on in the same old fashion and the time came when 
the people of Cuba also began to fight for freedom. The 
fighting went on for ten years, and at a later date, in 1895, 
it began again, and kept on for three years more. It was a 

238 


THE WAR WITH SPAIN 


very cruel war, and many of the poor women and children 
were made to go into the towns, where they could get noth¬ 
ing to eat and numbers of them starved to death. 

Feeding the Hungry. —The people of the United States 
were very sorry for the poor Cubans and did what they 
could to help them. One thing they did was to send a 
number of ships with food to feed the hungry. The Span¬ 
iards did not like this, and they said that the Americans 
were also sending guns and other arms to the rebels. 

How the Maine Was Sunk. —Early in 1898 an American 
battleship named the Maine was sent to the harbor of 
Havana, the capital of Cuba. One night, while the ship lay 
quietly at anchor, and all the men were asleep, and while 
the captain was writing in his cabin, there came a terrible 
noise under the ship and in a minute she was torn nearly 
in half. What is called a torpedo had been set off under 
her. She soon sank to the bottom, and most of the poor 
men on board were killed or drowned. This terrible event 
filled the American people with fury; they said that the 
Spaniards had blown up the Maine , and that Spain ought 
to be punished by taking Cuba from her. I cannot tell all 
that was said and done, but the feeling between the two 
countries grew worse every day, and on the 21st of April 
war began. 

Steel-Clad Ships.— You have read how, during the Civil 
War, a battle took place between two iron-clad vessels, the 
Monitor and the Merrimac. Since that time all large war¬ 
ships have been covered with iron or steel, and in 1898 the 

239 


THE WAR WITH SPAIN 


United States had a fine fleet of ships of this kind. Spain 
also had some good ships and much of the war that followed 
took place between these steel-clad fleets. 

The Battle of Manila. —Spain also had a large group of 
islands in the Pacific Ocean, not far from China, and known 
as the Philippine (fil'ip-in) Islands, and here, before the 
large city of Manila (Man-il'ah), the first battle with the 
Spaniards took place. Spain had a fleet of warships in 
the Bay of Manila, while there was an American fleet, under 
Commodore Dewey, on the coast of China. This steamed 
away at full speed for the Philippines, reaching there on the 
first of May. A battle began at once, but it was a very one¬ 
sided affair, the Americans pounding the Spanish ships to 
pieces and sinking them to the bottom, while their own ships 
were very little hurt. Hundreds of the Spaniards were 
killed or drowned and not an American lost his life. Every¬ 
body read the story of this strange battle with wonder, for 
no one looked for such a one-sided fight as this. People 
said that Dewey was a daring and splendid fighter, and a 
hero of the seas, and Congress gave him the highest rank 
in the Navy, that of Admiral. 

The Fleets at Cuba. —As for the island of Cuba, most 
of its seaports were quickly blocked up by American fight¬ 
ing ships, no ship being allowed to go in or come out of 
these ports. Spain had no warships there, but it was 
known that it had four fine steel-clad vessels, and that these 
were in the Atlantic, driving at full speed for Cuba. There 
were also three of the little craft known as torpedo boats, 

240 


THE WAR WITH SPAIN 


armed with explosives, like that by which the Maine had 
been blown up and sent to the bottom. 

Blockade of the Spanish Ships. —On the south side of 
Cuba, near its east end, is a large city named Santiago 
(San-te-ah'go), which has a fine bay, with a strong fort at 
its entrance. The Spanish ships managed to get into this 
bay without being seen, but a few days later an American 
fleet came up outside, and the Spanish war vessels were 
caught like so many rats in a trap. 

The Fleets at Santiago.—The naval battle which took 
place at Santiago was much like that at Manila, being a one¬ 
sided fight. Admiral Sampson, commander of the Amer¬ 
ican fleet, at first tried to lock up the Spanish ships in the 
harbor. An old coal-vessel called the Merrimac was taken 
in by a brave sailor named Lieutenant Hobson, and was 
sunk by him in the narrow channel. But it did not fill up the 
channel, and on July 3 the Spanish fleet came out at full 
speed and tried to run away. As soon as this was seen the 
American ships began to chase those of Spain. They fired 
on them so fiercely that one ship after another was set on 
fire and driven ashore. One of the Spanish ships ran fifty 
miles along the coast, but in the end it was driven ashore 
like the others. The torpedo-boats were sent to the 
bottom, and the whole Spanish fleet was destroyed. 
The victorv was as remarkable in its way as that at 
Manila, only one American being killed and no harm done 
to the ships, while Spain lost all her ships and hundreds 
of her seamen. 


241 


THE WAR WITH SPAIN 


The War on Land. —The war on land was settled almost 
as quickly as that on the water. In the Philippines, Manila 
was soon captured. In Cuba victory was won as quickly. 
The war lasted less than four months and Spain lost the last 
of her possessions in America and Asia. 

Fighting near Manila. —A few words will tell all I need 
say further about the war. Many of the people of the 
Philippines wanted to be free from the United States as well 
as from Spain, and a strong army of them began to fight for 
their freedom. There were fierce battles near Manila and 
many were killed and wounded on both sides, and for a 
time the United States had another war on its hands. Our 
country lost more soldiers in this war than in the war with 
Spain. It ended in 1901, and since then the people on 
these islands have been treated so well by the Americans 
that they are fully satisfied. It is well to say in addition that 
Cuba became a free country while Porto Rico was made 
an island part of the United States. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. How Spain treated her colonies in America. 

2. How Cuba fought for freedom. 

3. The sinking of the Maine and the coming of war. 

4. The battle at Manila. 

5. The Spanish fleet at Santiago. 

6. The sinking of the Merrimac. 

7. The destruction of the Spanish ships. 

8. The fighting in the Philippines. 


242 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER. 

America s Great Men. —If my readers go back over what 
they have found in this little history they will meet with the 
names of many men who helped make their country great 
and prosperous. But while most of these were famous in 
America only, three of them, Benjamin Franklin, George 
Washington, and Abraham Lincoln have been ranked 
among the world’s greatest and most notable men. These 
were not great in the same way. Each of them won fame 
in a way of his own, but it will be long before their names 
and the story of their lives are forgotten. I have now to 
speak of another who must be named among America’s 
world heroes. His name is Theodore Roosevelt, a man 
of our own days, but one likely to be long looked upon as 
the fourth of our world heroes, as famous and capable in 
his way as were Franklin, Washington and Lincoln in theirs. 

Our Most Famous Heroes.— The four men of whom 
I have above spoken were unlike in various ways. Franklin, 
the oldest in date, came from the Puritan colony of New 
England, though nearly all his life was spent in Philadel¬ 
phia, whose greatest citizen he was. Washington, the next 
in date, came from the Cavalier colony of Virginia, whose 
people were very different from the Puritans. Lincoln, the 
third, was born in what was then the far west, and'was as 
poor as Washington was rich. Roosevelt, the fourth, who 
lived in our own time, came from the colony of New York, 
and was a descendant of the Dutch settlers of Manhattan 

243 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


Island. You may see from this that while all these men 
were great and capable, they were very different in ancestry, 
conditions and character. It is of the last of them, who 
died very recently, that we shall now speak. 

How Roosevelt got Strong.— Theodore Roosevelt was 
not a poor boy, like Abraham Lincoln and some others you 
have read about. His parents lived in the city of New York 
and had plenty of money, but as a child he was weak and 
sickly, and looked as if he would never be well and strong. 
What made him strong was out-door life and hard work. 
His father told him that no one had a right to live who did 
not do his share of work, so from the time he was a little 
lad he was all the time doing something to make him as 
hale and hearty as the boys he lived among. 

College Life and Sports.— When he went to college he 
was as active as at home. He studied a good deal, but 
he took part in the college sports also, and was fond of 
wrestling, and boxing, and running, and polo playing, so 
that none of his schoolmates thought that this strong lad 
had been sickly in his younger days. After he left college 
he became a great hunter, as I shall tell you farther on. 

A Maker of Honest Laws.— Roosevelt did not intend 
to spend his life in play and was not afraid of the hardest 
kind of work. When he left college and went to Europe 
he climbed the highest mountains he could find. He 
always wanted to be at the top. After he came home he 
began a political life, and was elected to the Legislature 
of New York. He was still little more than a boy, but 

244 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


lie soon rose to be one of the leading men in the Assem¬ 
bly. What he wished for was honest laws, and these he 
fought hard to obtain, so that people soon began to praise 
him. Later on he was on civil service duty in New York 
city, and also took part in police work. The rascals of 
that great city were never hunted out as they were when 
Theodore Roosevelt, got on their tracks. 

Hunting Life in the West.—When Roosevelt had no 
work to do at home he went to the western country to 
hunt wild animals, such as mountain lions, grizzly bears 
and moose and elks. He was very near-sighted and had 
to wear eye-glasses, but he was not afraid of the most 
savage beasts. He had also a cattle-ranch, and kept cow¬ 
boys to take care of his animals, and soon became as good 
a cowboy as the best of his men. He was very free and 
easy with them and liked to have them call him “Teddy.” 

Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.—When the war with Spain 
broke out Roosevelt was at Washington, acting as Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy. President McKinley wanted good 
work done on the warships of the country, and he soon 
learned where to find the best men to do it. But when war 
broke out, in April, 1898, Roosevelt could not be kept at 
his desk. If fighting was to be done he was ready and 
eager to take part in it. To do this he got together a 
regiment mostly made up of cowboys, whom the people 
called “ Roosevelt’s Rough Riders,” and with them he went 
to the war in Cuba. There was no braver or more daring 
soldier in the army than the cowboy leader. The way he 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


led his men in the bloody charge up San Juan Hill made 
him the popular hero of the war. When the bullets were 
whistling around him he was cheering and yelling to his 
men to come on. They loved him, for he lived among 
them and lived like them. When the war ended every¬ 
body was talking of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. 

Governor and Vice-President.— From that time on he 
rose rapidly in public opinion, for he had a hand in every¬ 
thing. When, soon after the war, New York State needed a 
new governor the man most wanted by the voters was the pop¬ 
ular hero of the late war, and he was nominated and elected 
with a good majority. But while the people admired him, 
the political leaders of New York did not want him. He 
was too honest and upright for them. So, when in 1900 
the time came to electa new President, they had Roosevelt 
nominated for Vice-President, McKinley being elected for 
President a second time. 

The Death of President McKinley.— The politicians 
thought they had got rid of Roosevelt now, for the Vice- 
President has very little to do and the people are apt to for¬ 
get him. But the very next year a terrible crime made 
him the President of the United States. You have read 
about how two of our Presidents, Lincoln and Garfield, 
were killed by murderers. McKinley was killed in the 
same way. It was while visiting a great exhibition at Buf¬ 
falo, on the shores of Lake Erie, that a wretched assassin 
shot this good and noble man, who had done nothing to 
injure any one. He died after a week of suffering. 

246 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


How the News Reached Roosevelt.— When this sad 
death came, Mr. Roosevelt was far away in the moun¬ 
tains. He had gone out for a tramp through the hills, 
and men were sent in all directions to find him. Hour 
after hour passed away before he was found on the top 
of a high mountain, and all night long he rode through 
the woods in a stage coach while the • rain poured down. 
Then a railroad train took him at great speed to Buffalo, but 
when he got there the President had been dead ten hours. 

Roosevelt as President.— It was this dreadful event that 
made Theodore Roosevelt President of the United States, 
for you should know that when a President dies the Vice- 
President takes his place. The new President was a very 
different man from the old one, who, while he was honest 
and kindly, was mild and gentle in character. Roosevelt was 
bold and daring and often hasty in his actions, yet he was 
earnest and upright and able, and he soon showed that he 
would make a good President. He won so many friends 
and supporters among the people that when, in 1904, a new 
presidential election took place, he received the greatest 
number of votes that had ever been given to an American 
President. 

A Great Peace-Maker.— Never had there been a more 
active and capable President. He got Congress to pass a 
number of important laws for the good of the country and 
did much to make peace at home and abroad. Thus he 
brought to an end a great strike among the coal miners of 
the country and also brought about peace between Russia 

247 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


and Japan, which were then at war. The world came to 
look upon him as the greatest peace-maker of the time and 
Sweden voted to him the $40,000 Nobel prize for the man 
who had done the most in the interest of peace. Thus 
Colonel Roosevelt was at once a hard fighter and an earnest 
advocate for national peace. 

Events under Roosevelt.— We have spoken of various 
events that took place during Roosevelt's term of office. 
Much was done in the way of reform and many evils were 
done away with. We shall speak further only of two events 
of leading interest. The first of these was the making of 
the Panama Canal, one of the most important triumphs 
of engineering of modern times. The other was 
the sending of a fleet of American war vessels around 
the world. 

The Panama Canal.—If any of you look at a map of the 
two Americas, North and South, you will find them spread 
out widely between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, though 
only a narrow neck of land joins them together in the center. 
This is known by the name of Panama. It had long been 
a source of great trouble, for it closed up the passage between 
the two oceans, and forced vessels sailing between these to 
go far south around South America, adding several thousand 
miles to the distance by water between two such cities as 
New York and San Francisco. Here was a trouble that 
needed to be overcome, and the only way to do it was to 
cut a water-way across the neck of land. 

For many years this had been in view and a French 

248 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


company had done some work in the way of cutting such 
a canal across the ridge between the oceans. This was the 
state of affairs when President Roosevelt took it up. He 
brought it before Congress, gave the French company 
$40,000,000 for the work so far done and $10,000,000 to 
Panama for the land needed. Then in 1904 the United 
States replaced France in the work and pushed it rapidly 
forward. It took ten years to complete it and cost 
$375,000,000, but to-day very large vessels can go through 
the Canal from sea to sea and save the thousands of miles 
formerly needed to complete the voyage. 

Warships Sail ’round the World.—In 1907 a large Amer¬ 
ican battle fleet was sent by Roosevelt around the world, 
visiting Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan and reach¬ 
ing Hampton Roads, Virginia, from which it had sailed, on 
February 22, 1909. Such a voyage of a powerful Navy, 
without delay or accident, had never been made before, and 
added greatly to the standing of the United States as a great 
naval power. 

Roosevelt on a Hunting Trip.—In 1908 when the time 
to nominate a new President came around, President Roose¬ 
velt declined to run again for the office. He had been in 
it for nearly eight years and was tired of battling with pub¬ 
lic affairs. He wanted a rest and took his own way of 
getting one. He had hunted the wild beasts of our own 
country, and now decided to go to Africa, the greatest coun¬ 
try in the world for savage animals. Here he would find 
the fierce lion, the giant elephant, rhinoceros, and hip- 

249 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 


popotamus, the wild buffalo and leopard, the giraffe, zebra 
and various kinds of antelopes, with other wild beasts. It 
was a splendid hunting trip, one in which his own life was 
often in danger. But he came through it in safety, bringing 
back the skins and skeletons of many animals' to be set up 
in a great museum at Washington. 

A Reception in Europe. —On his way home Roosevelt 
visited several of the countries of Europe and was every¬ 
where received with the highest honors by the rulers and 
leading men of their countries, for his fame as a capable 
statesmen had gone around the world, and he was looked 
upon as one of the greatest and ablest men of modern times. 
He made addresses in France, Italy, Sweden and elsewhere, 
and came home with a high reputation. 

In Another Continent. —After his return from Africa, 
Colonel Roosevelt, as everybody now called him, wrote a 
book telling of his hunting trip, which was but one of many 
books that came from his pen. He also served as a news¬ 
paper editor. But work like this could not long hold so 
active a man and after a few years of home life he again 
took the hunting fever and was off with his old rifle 
in hand, taking South America for his new sporting field. 
It was in 1914 that the Colonel set out on this trip, his 
son and a party of his hunter friends going with him. 
He began by calling on the Presidents of Brazil and Argen¬ 
tina in their capitals. Then he and his party went into the 
wildwoods of Brazil, where they found plenty of adventure 
and danger and a good deal of torment also, for that country 

250 


I 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CAREER 

is full of biting and stinging insects, which have no more 
respect for an ex-President than for everyday folks. Here, 
in the depth of the Brazilian forest, he found a river a 
thousand miles long which had never been seen before. 
Some called it “The River of Doubt,”but the President of 
Brazil named it Rio Theodoro, after its discoverer. Roose¬ 
velt came near being drowned in its rushing waters, and on 
its banks he picked up an attack of tropical fever, which 
would have put an end to his career if he had not been so 
hardy and sturdy. 

The War Fever.— In 1917, when the United States took 
part in the war in Europe, Colonel Roosevelt was still a 
great favorite with most of the people, and thousands of 
the people offered to follow him to the battlefield. But 
President Wilson did not approve of a military force out¬ 
side the regular army and this independent body was not 
formed. Two years later this great American soldier 
and statesman died, and only the memory of his 
deeds remained. 

Tell in your own words— 

1. What kind of a boy and man was Theodore Roosevelt. 

2. How he made his way in public life. 

3. His career in the wild West. 

4. His deeds as Colonel of the Rough Riders. 

5. How he became Governor and Vice-President. 

6. His career as a President. 

7. How he aided the Panama Canai. 

8. His hunting trips in Africa and South America. 


251 


THE WORLD WAR 


THE WORLD WAR. 

The Seat of Conflict.—You have now been told many 
tales about war and might like to read some about peace. 
But in the years to which we have now come there was little 
else than war to think about. In these years a terrible con¬ 
flict spread so widely that men called it the “World War.” 
It began in Europe, but spread out until our own country 
was drawn into it, and many of our young men lost their 
lives on the battlefield. We must, therefore, deal with it as 
part of our nation’s history. It began in 1914 and kept on 
until 1918, many of the nations of Europe and Asia being 
brought into it. It began when Germany sent its army 
into Belgium, France and Russia, and in the end stretched 
its long arm across the ocean and drew the United States 
into the terrible conflict. In this way our own country was 
brought into the struggle. 

The War in Europe.—For several years before this our 
Country had trouble with Mexico, whose bandits were kill¬ 
ing American citizens who went into their country, and in 
the end we had to send an army there to punish them. 
But something far worse was soon to come, for the fight¬ 
ing Germans began to deal with our passenger vessels in 
a hostile manner. President Wilson, then at the head of 
our Government, tried to stop this and at the same time 
keep the United States out of the war, but Emperor William, 
the German ruler, seemed to have made up his mind to 
draw us into it, and in the end he did so. 


252 


THE WORLD WAR 


Sinking of the Lusitania. —Many British vessels were 
sunk by German submarines—under-water vessels armed 
with torpedoes and cannon ; and in this way a number of 
American citizens lost their lives. This led to a great dis¬ 
aster when a large passenger ship, called the Lusitania, was 
sent to the bottom with many of its pass angers. This took 
place in May, 1915. Of those who lost their lives in this 
terrible deed more than a hundred were Americans. Such 
an act of slaughter made our people very angry and war 
with Germany was loudly demanded. But the President 
did his best to keep the United States at peace, though 
our factories became busy in making guns, shells and pow¬ 
der, and our shipyards in building war vessels. 

The United States in the War. —As time went on the 
German leaders seemed to think that our people were 
afraid to fight. At any rate in 1917 they began to sink 
American vessels and several of these were sent to the bot¬ 
tom with loss of life. This could not be borne. The 
Germans were to find that the Americans were in no way 
afraid to fight. It was impossible to keep us any longer at 
peace. Congress was at once called into session and on 
April 6 it declared that a state of war existed between 
Germany and the United States. 

Preparing for Battle.— This was all very well, but it was 
soon seen that the United States was not ready for war. 

%j 

It had made tons upon tons of war material, but this had 
been sent abroad. Food had also been sent in great abund¬ 
ance across the ocean and little was left at home. Some- 

253 


THE WORLD WAR 


thing had to be done at once—an army had to be raised 
and fed, food had to be grown in large quanities, ships had 
to be built and many other things had to be done. It was 
said we must “arm and farm,” and very quickly the whole 
country was busy in doing both of these. 

What else was done? An important step was to get money, 
and Congress voted that the very great sum of $7,000,000,- 
000 should be raised. Of this $3,000,000,000 was to be 
loaned to our allies in Europe and the rest kept for use at 
home. To raise this money very heavy taxes were laid on 
incomes and many other things. A large number of small 
warships were to be built to fight the German submarines. 
To get an army quickly into the field volunteers were called 
for and it was also decided to force young men into the ranks. 
A very large army was to be at once raised by what is 
known as draft, a method of taking men for the army 
without waiting for them to enlist. 

Crossing the Atlantic.—There was no time to be lost, 
and a small army was quickly sent in ships across the 
Atlantic to help the English and French on the battlefield. 
The German submarines tried to sink these ships, but they 
failed to do so, and the men were safely landed in France, 
where they were gladly received. Other soldiers were got 
ready to cross and it was hoped that before the end of the 
year a million American soldiers would be beyond the 
ocean and ready to fight. Also all the food that Could 
be spared was sent across the ocean, and many other 
things were done to aid the allies of this country to win 

254 


THE WORLD WAR 


victory over their enemies and put an end to the dreadful 
war that was bringing desolation and terror to so much 
of the world. 

The Americans at War.— When the United States 
entered the war in April, 1917, its army numbered less 
than 200,000 men. When the war ended, November, 11, 
1918, its army was more than 3,000,000 in number, of 
whom about 2,000,000 had crossed the ocean and were 
in the field. And these were soldiers true and tried, 
trained fighting men, who had come for victory, not for de¬ 
feat. They came at a critical time, for the British and French 
forces were in a desperate state and the Americans were 
sorely needed. To them the final victory was due. The 
German army was unable to bear the crushing onset of 
these fresh young Americans, our own friends and brothers, 
and their entry into the field rang the bell of defeat for the 
German host. This soon gave up the struggle, the em¬ 
peror fled to Holland for safety, and the great combat, so 
far as Germany was concerned, came to an end. 

What Came from the War.— There was more fighting, 
much of it, but this was done by fragments of the old 
nations of Europe, which were seeking for liberty, and it 
had little or nothing to do with the history of the United 
States. A peace congress was held in France and the con¬ 
quered Germans were loaded with a very heavy debt to pay 
the victors for the cost of the war. A “League of Nations 11 
was also formed, its purpose being to prevent wars in the 
time to come and settle all national disputes by law instead 

255 


THE WORLD WAR 


of force. As for the new Europe, the empires of the past 
came to an end and the kings became the servants of the 
cabinets and prime ministers, who stood for the people. 
The despot of old times was gone, and the governments of 
the new times were based upon that of the United States, 
which in the words of Abraham Lincoln was the “Govern¬ 
ment of the People, by the People and for the People/’ 

The Democratic Bra.—I have dealt with all this in a few 
words, because it is chiefly the history of the old world and 
only to a small degree that of the new. But the country 
we dwell in had much to do in seeking to bring the fright¬ 
ful war to a safe end and with founding a new democratic 
era of national rule. The United States of today may be 
looked upon as the richest, strongest, freest and noblest of 
the nations of the earth and as the years roll on, it is grow¬ 
ing more and more the promised land of justice, freedom 
and equality, the world’s high-school of liberty and equal 
rights. 

What Followed the War. —During the years following 
the war, conditions have been more or less unsettled in many 
countries, especially in Europe where there was for a time a 
continuation of fighting among fragments of the old nations 
which were seeking liberty. In the meantime a peace con¬ 
gress was held in France and the conquered Germans were 
loaded with a very heavy debt to pay the victors for the cost 
of the war. A “League of Nations” was also formed, its 
purpose being to prevent wars in the time to come and settle 
all national disputes by law instead of force. President 

Wilson favored this very strongly, but President Harding, 

256 


THE WORLD WAR 


who succeeded him to office in 1920, was opposed to our en¬ 
trance into the League. He was, however, in favor of reduc¬ 
ing the navies of the world, and called a conference of the 
great powers to discuss this and succeeded in reducing the 
number of the warships of the foremost nations. 

Since then conditions, both in Europe and America, show 
a slow but steady improvement. Peace was concluded be¬ 
tween the United States and Germany and people began to 
look hopefully for a return of normal conditions. A great 
shock awaited them, however, in the sudden death of President 
Harding at San Francisco in August 1923. 

The New Era. —Notwithstanding this sudden blow, the 
American people with Calvin Coolidge as their new president, 
still look toward a future that is bright with the promise of 
the newer and better era. The United States of today may 
be looked upon as the richest, strongest, freest and noblest of 
the nations of the earth, and as the years roll on, it is grow¬ 
ing more and more the promised land of justice, freedom, econ¬ 
omy, and the world’s high school of liberty and equal rights. 

What can you say about— 

1. The start of the war. 

2. The work of the submarines. 

3. Why our country entered the war. 

4. How victory was won. 

5. Events following the war. 


257 



i 

Ik . 








INDEX 


A 

Adams, John, 155, 188 
Adams, Samuel, 183 
Africa, hunting in, 249, 250 
Alaska, 237, 238 
Albany, city of, 55 
Alden, John, 64 
Allegheny River, 135 
America, discovery of, 19-21; natives of, 
21; naming of, 28 
Americans, famous, 243, 244 
Andros, Governor, 82, 83 
Arnold, Benedict, 162 
Asia, trade with, 12, 13; belief of Colum¬ 
bus about, 22; o r the Cabots, 26; of 
Henry Hudson, 53, 55 
Atlantic Ocean, the, 13; old ideas about, 
18 

B 

Backwoods, life in the, 120 
Bacon rebellion, the, 50, 51 
Bahamas, the, 21 
Baltimore, city of, 89 
Baltimore, Lord, 86-89 
Barcelona, city of, 22, 23 
Berkeley, Governor, 50, 51 
Betsy Ross, 166-168 
Blockhouse, 115 

Boone, Daniel, 170, 171; in Kentucky, 
172; adventures with Indians, 173- 
175; escape from captivity, 175, 176, 
194, 204 

Boonesboro, 174, 175 
Boston, city of, 71, 121; teaships at, 
147; port of, closed, 148; patriots of, 
149; siege of, 153, 154; evacuation of. 
155; great fire in, 231 
Boston tea party, the, 147 
Braddock, General, 137-140, 145 


Brazil, hunting in, 250, 251 
Bristol, city of, 25 

British soldiers in Boston, 148, 149; at 
Lexington and Concord, 150-152; 
leave Boston, 155; in the West. 179 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 154 
Burgoyne, surrender of, 161 
Burr, Aaron, 188 

C 

Cabot, John, 25, 26 

Cabot, Sebastian, 26-28 

California, 207; wealth of, 210 

Canada, 25, 35; ceded to England, 142 

Canal, Panama, 248, 249 

Canary Islands, 17 

Cape Cod, 60 

Capitol at Washington burned, 197 
Carolinas, settlement of the, 99 
Catholics, persecution of, 86; settle in 
Maryland, 87; ill-treatment of, 88, 89 
Centennial celebration, the, 233, 234 
Charles I., 80 
Charles II., 80, 82 
Charter, the Connecticut, 82-84 
Charter oak, the, 84 
Charters of the colonies, 82 
Chicago, World’s Fair in, 10, 234, 235; 

great fire in, 230, 231 
Church, Captain, 79 
Church-going in New England, 113-115 
Church of England, the, 90: persecution 
by, 90, 91 

Civil War, the, 226-229 
Clark, George Rogers, expedition of, 
178-182 

Clay, Henry, 202, 203 

Cliff dwellers, the, 108 

Clock, the sun, 111 

Colonies, European, 102; Spanish, 238 

Colonists, oppression of the, 145 




INDEX 


Colony, Raleigh’s, 36; Jamestown, 40; 
New York, 56; Pilgrim, 64; Puritan, 
71; Rhode Island, 74; Maryland, 87; 
Pennsylvania, 94; Carolina, 99; 
Georgia, 100 
Columbia, 28 
Columbia River, 211 
Columbian exhibition, 234, 235 
Columbus, Christopher, 9; at convent, 
10; voyages of, 12; in Portugal, 14; 
in Spain, 14-16, 22, 23; vessels of, 16; 
sets sail, 17; discoveries in America, 
19-21; sent home in chains, 23; death 
of, 24 

Compass, mariners’, the, 18, 41 
Concord, stores at, 150; battle of, 152 
Confederate States, the, 225 
Congress, Continental, 148; passes Dec¬ 
laration of Independence, 155 
Connecticut, Indian war in, 77; charter 
of, 82-84 

Constitution, the, 130 
Convent, La Rabida, 10, 11, 14 
Corn, Indian, 40, 63 
Cornwallis, Lord, 162-164 
Cortez, 31 
Cottonbale fort, 198 
Cuba, Island of, 21, 238; rebellion in, 
238, 239; war in, 24Q-242; national¬ 
ization of, 242 

Cubans, aid to starving, 239 

D 

Dare, Virginia, 36 

Davis, Jefferson, 225; president of Con¬ 
federacy, 226 

Debtors, cruel treatment of, 98; taken 
to America, 99 

Declaration of Independence, the, 155, 
183, 188, 234 
Delaware, Lord, 48 
Delaware River, the, 92, 93 
De Soto, Fernando, 31, 32 
Dewey, Admiral George, 240 
Drake, Sir Francis, 35, 36 
Dress in New England, 112; in the 
South, 119 

Dutch, expedition of the, 53; settle on 
Manhattan Island, 56; conquered by 
the English, 57; houses of the, 58; 
customs of the, 59 


E 

Earth, roundness of the, 13 
Earthquake at San Francisco, 231, 232 
England, cruelty in, 61; wars with, 
152-164, 193, 196-199 
English expeditions to America, 25-28, 
35, 36, 47; settlements, 36, 40, 63, 87, 
94, 99; colonies, 102 
Exhibition, Centennial, 233, 234; Co¬ 
lumbian, 234, 235; St. Louis and 
others, 235, 236 

F 

Feast days in New England, 113 
Ferdinand, King, 22 
Fires, great, 230, 231 
Fisheries, American, 27, 33, 34 
Flag, the American, 165-170 
Flag day, 168 

Flags, revolutionary, 165, 166 
Fleet sails ’round earth, 246 
Fletcher, Governor, 85 
Flood, Johnstown, 233 
Florida, discovery of, 30, settlement of, 
99 

Food in New England, 112 
Fools’ gold, 40 
Forest fires, 231 

Fort Kaskask a, capture of, 177, 178 
Fort Mimms, massacre at, 195 
Fort Necessity, Washington in, 137 
Fort Schuyler, the flag on, 167 
Fort Vincennes, capture of, 181 
Fountain of Youth, the, 29, 30 
Fourth of July holiday, the, 155 
France, expeditions of, 33-35; loss of 
colonies by, 142; Franklin’s treaty 
with, 161; soldiers in, 254 
Francis I. of France, 34 
Franklin, Benjamin, 122; in Boston, 
123-125; in Philadelphia, 126-128; 
inventions and discoveries of, 129; 
patriotism of, 130, 131, 144, 155; in 
France, 161; haracter of, 243 
French fisheries, 33; explorers, 34, 102; 
forts, 133, 136, 142; in the West, 177, 
179 

French and Indian War, 136-143 
Friends, the, 91, 92; at peace with the 
Indians, 96; customs of, 116 


260 





INDEX 


G 

Genoa, city of, 12, 14 
George III., 144-148. 

Georgia, 99-101 
Gettysburg, battle of, 228 
Glass windows, 111 
Goffe, General, 82 ' 

Gold in America, 29; in California, 208- 
210; in Alaska, 237, 238 
Grant, General U. S., 228, 229 
Gray, Captain, 211 
Great Admiral, the, 26 
Great Captain, the, 28 
Green-corn festival, the, 107 
Gulf of Mexico, the, 33 

H 

Hadley, Indian fight in, 81 
Half Moon, the, 53 
Hamilton, Alexander, 187, 188 
Harrison, William Henry, 190-194 
Hawkins, Sir John, 35 
Henry, Patrick, 178, 183 
Hispaniola, 21 

Holland, 52, 55; Pilgrims in, 61 
Houses in New York, 58; of Pueblo 
Indians, 107, 108; in New England, 
110, 111; in the South, 118; in the 
West, 205 

Hudson, Henry, voyage of, 53; in New 
York Bay, 54; death of, 55 
Hudson Bay, 55 
Hudson River, 54 

I 

India, 22, 52 
Indian prophet, 191, 192 
Indian wars, 77-79, 81, 189, 229, 230 
Indians, the, 21, 22; massacre in Virginia 
by, 50; of Massachusetts, 66, 67; plot 
of, 68; friendship for Roger Williams, 
71-73; of Maryland, 87; of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, 94-97; of Georgia, 100; man¬ 
ners and customs of, 102-106; of the 
South and West, 107, 108; numbers 
of, 109; settlers attacked by, 141; of 
Kentucky, 172-176; cruelty of, 178; 
massacre in the South, 195; wars with 
in the West, 229, 230; present condi¬ 
tion of, 109, 230, 231 
Indigo, planting of, 120 


Iron-clad ships, 227, 239, 240 
Isabella, Queen, 15, 22 
Island of Cuba, 238 

J 

Jackson, Andrew, 194-196; at Ne* 
Orleans, 197—199; becomes President, 
200 

Jackson, Stonewall, 228 
James II, 82 
Jamestown, 40, 49 
James River, 38 

Jefferson, Thomas, 155, 183, 184; be¬ 
comes President, 185; death of, 188 
John, King, of Portugal, 14 
Johnston, Joseph E., 228 
Johnstown flood, 233 
Jones, John Paul, 167 
Juan Perez, Prior, 11, 15, 17 

K 

Kite, Franklin’s, 129 

L 

La Salle, the French explorer, 35 
Lee, General Robert E., 228, 229 
Lewis and Clark expedition, 186, 187, 
211 

Lexington, 151; Revolution opens at, 
152 

Liberty Bell, the, 155 
Life in New York, 58, 59; of the Indians 
102-109; in New England, 110-115; 
in the Middle of Southern colonies, 
116-120; in the backwoods, 120; in 
the West, 204-206 

Lightning, Franklin’s experiments on, 
129 

Lincoln, Abraham, 121, 216; school life 
of, 217; character of, 218, 219; as a 
lawyer, 220, 221; in Congress, 222; is 
elected President, 222; assassination, 
of, 223 
Louisiana, 35 

Louisiana purchase, 186; exhibition in, 
honor of, 235 

Lusitania, sinking of the, 253 

M 

McKinley, President, assassination of, 
246 

| Maine, sinking of the, 239 
261 





INDEX 


Manila, fighting at, 240 
Maryland, colony of, 88, 89 
Massachusetts, GO 

Massasoit, 66,67,72,73; sons of, 76, 79 
Mayflower, the, 61, 63 
Medicine men, 106 
Merrimac, the iron-clad, 227 
Mexico, 31; war with, 206, 207 
Minute men, the, 149, 153 
Mississippi River, discovery of the, 32; 

La Salle explores the, 35; mouth of 
the, 186 

Mobile, town of, 32 

Monitor and Merrimac, battle of the, 227 
Montreal, city of, 35, 142 
Morris, Robert, 183 

N 

Narragansett tribe of Indians, 67 
National Parks, the, 237 
New Amsterdam, settlement of, 56, 57 
New England, naming of, 70; life in, 
110-115 

New Orleans, city of, 186; battle of, 
197-199 

New World, the, 24 
New York bay, 53, 54, 57 
New York city, 51, 52, 57; patriots of, 
155; British capture of, 157 
North Carolina, industries of, 120 

O 

Oglethorpe, James, 97-101 
Ohio River, claims to the, 133, 135; 
French fort on the, 136; end of war on 
the, 142; emigrants on the, 204, 206 
Oregon, 210, 211, 214, 215 

P 

Paine, Thomas, 183 
Palos, port of, 16, 22 
Panama canal, the, 248, 249 
Parks, national, 237 
Parliament, British, 146, 147 
Paul Jones, John, 167 
Paul Revere’s ride, 150, 151 
Penn, William, 91; land grant to, 92; 
founding of Philadelphia by, 94; 
treaty with the Indians, 95; justice 
to the Indians, 96 

262 


Penn’s treaty, 95 
Pennsylvania, 92, 96 
Peru, 31 

Philadelphia, city of, 93; naming of, 94; 
people of, 116; capture of, 160; evacua¬ 
tion of, 161, 162; news of Yorktown 
surrender in, 164; grand exhibition in, 
233, 234 

Philip, King, war of, 77-79; death of, 79 
Philippine Islands, the, 240, 242 
Pilgrims, the, 61; landing of the, 63; 

church fort of the, 67 
Pine tree flag, the, 166 
Pittsburg, city of, 142 
Pizarro, 31 
Plantation life, 118 

Plymouth, landing of Pilgrims at, 63; 
naming of, 64; people of, 76 
i Pocahontas, 42 

Poems on the flag, 168-170 
Poles, North and South, 257 
Ponce de Leon, 29, 30 
Poor Richard’s Almanac, 128 
Porto Rico, 29, 245 

Portugal, 14; discovery of India by, 52 
Potato plant, the, 37 
Powhatan, 41, 42, 43 
Princeton, battle of, 160 
Priscilla and Miles Standish, 64 
Providence, founding of, 74 
Pueblo Indians, 107, 108 
Puritans settle Boston, 71; persecutions 
by the, 71 

Q 

Quakers, the, 91, 116 
Quebec, capture of, 142 

R 

Railroad building, 236, 237 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 36; introduces to¬ 
bacco in England, 37 
Rattlesnake flag, the, 165 
Rebellion in Cuba, the, 238, 239 
Regicides, the, 80 

Religious liberty in Rhode Island, 74; 

in Maryland, 88 
Religious persecutions, 71, 90 
Revolution, war of the, 157-164 



INDEX 


Rhode Island, colony of, 74, 75 
Richmond, city of, 227 
River of Doubt, 251 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 243-251 
Rough Riders, the, 245 

S 

St. Clair, General, 189 
St. Lawrence River, 35 
St. Louis, exhibition at, 252 
San Francisco, city of, 209; earthquake 
at, 231 

San Salvadore Island, 21 
Santiago, blockade and capture of, 241 
Savannah, founding of, 99; city of, 101 
Savannah River, 101 
Schools in the South, 119, 120; in the 
West, 205 

Sea of Darkness, the, 13, 18 
Settlements, Indian attacks on the, 141 
Sheridan, General Philip H., 228 
Sherman, General William T., 228 
Ship-building in New England, 115 
Slave States, the, 224 
Slavery, Lincoln’s views on, 222; bad 
feeling about, 224 

Slaves brought to Jamestown, 49; in 
Maryland, 89; in the South, 224 
Smith, Captain John, 38; early story of, 
39, 40; in Virginia, 40-43; made gov¬ 
ernor, 44; explores the country, 45, 46; 
sails to New England, 47, 53, 60, 62, 
63; names New England, 70 
South, life in the, 117 
South Carolina, industries of, 120 
Spain, 14, 20, 22, 29; colonies of, 238; 
war with, 238-242 

Spaniards of Florida, 100; in America, 
102 

Sports in New England, 113 
Stamp tax, the, 146, 183 
Standish, Captain Miles, 60, 62; seeks 
a wife, 64, 65; dealings with the 
Indians, 66-68; last years of, 69, 70 
Star-Spangled Banner, the, 169 
Stars and Stripes, the, 167, 168 
Steamcars and steamships, 236, 237 
Steel-clad ships, 239 
Stephens, Alexander H., 225 


Stove, the Franklin, 129 
Stuyvesant, Governor, 57 
Sun-Worship, Indian, 107 
Sutter, Captain, 207-210 

T 

Tea, tax on, 147 
Tea party, the Boston, 147 
Tecumseh, 190, 192, 193, 195 
Telegraph, the, 236 
Telephone, the, 236 
Tennessee, settlement of, 182 
Tippecanoe, 191; battle of, 192 
Titles in New England, 113 
Tobacco introduced in England, 37; in 
Virginia, 49; in Maryland, 89; smoked 
by Indians, 105 
Totem, the Indian, 105 
Trade with Asia, 12 

Trail, Indian skill in following the, 105 
Trenton, battle of, 159 

U 

Union, the American, 224, 225 
United States, the, extent of, after the 
Revolution, 182; war of, with Eng¬ 
land, 193, 196; war with Mexico, 207; 
civil war in, 224; war with Spain, 238; 
in the Philippines, 240; freedom to 
Cuba, 242; in European war, 252-255 

V 

Valley Forge, 160 
Venice, 25 

Virgina, 38; settlement of, 48-51 

W 

Wadsworth, Captain, 84, 85 
Wampun, 106 

War, cruelty of, 154; in Europe, 252-256 
Washington, George, at school, 131; 
surveyor, 132; sent to French forts, 
133-135; fights with the French, 136, 
137; joins Braddock, 138-141; takes 
Fort Duquesne, 142; on the planta¬ 
tion, 143, 144; in Congress, 148; made 
commander-in-chief, 154; in Revolu- 






INDEX 


tionary war, 157-160; victorious at 
Yorktown, 163; elected President, 
164; orders United States flag, 167; 
death of, 164; character of, 243 
Washington city, public buildings 
burned in, 197; capital of nation, 227 
Wayne, General, 190 
Weathersford, the Indian chief, 196 
Webster, Daniel, 200-203 
West, life in the, 204-206; the great, 206 
Whitman, Marcus, 211; winter ride of, 
212-214; saves Oregon, 214, 215 


Williams, Roger, 71-74, 88 
Winds and waters, 232, 233 
Winthrop, John, 71 
Wolfe, General, at Quebec, 142 
Work in New England, 115 
World War, the, 252-256 
World’s Fair, Centennial, 233, 234 
Columbian, 234, 235; St. Louis, 235 

Y 

Yorktown, surrender of, 164 




264 












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